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A Proper Pursuit

by Lynn Austin (Goodreads Author)

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 2,110 ratings · 312 reviews

When Violet Hayes ventures to Chicago during the time of the World's Fair, her one goal is to find her mother, who has been missing from her life since she was nine. Naive, impressionable, and highly imaginative (having secretly ingested a diet of romance novels and true crime stories at school), Violet stays in Chicago under the care of her grandmother and her three great...more

Paperback, 432 pages

Published September 1st 2007 by Bethany House Publishers (first published January 1st 2007)

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Lists with This Book

An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers

Best Christian Historical Fiction

51st out of 528 books — 545 voters

Christy Award Winners

4th out of 114 books — 69 voters

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Jan 18, 2012 Katherine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-faves, christian-fiction, romance

I enjoyed reading this book so, so much. I just wish the last chapter were a little longer - as it was I read the third last and last (the second last being about something else) twice.

As with the other Austin book I read (A Woman's Place), I again felt like I learnt a lot: the great Chicago Fires; the huge World Exhibition in Chicago (might be called something else...); D. L. Moody and his yokefellows; the slums of Chicago; the women's rights movement - that was pretty cool, especially conside...more I enjoyed reading this book so, so much. I just wish the last chapter were a little longer - as it was I read the third last and last (the second last being about something else) twice.

As with the other Austin book I read (A Woman's Place), I again felt like I learnt a lot: the great Chicago Fires; the huge World Exhibition in Chicago (might be called something else...); D. L. Moody and his yokefellows; the slums of Chicago; the women's rights movement - that was pretty cool, especially considering the book was set at the end of the 19thC; and proper etiquette.

I think that Austin is very good at writing humour, and I liked how humour offset a lot of the religious stuff. (view spoiler)

The thing that makes this book so different to nearly every other book I've read is the sheer volume of imaginative play and daydreams and conjectures in it. It took me a chapter or two to get used to, because it's so different. It is really enjoyable. I love the "If you could choose questions" and the differing reactions to them. The mystery/detective side of it is fun, too.

Of course, the best bit of the book in my opinion was the romance story, which was very well done. It's a credit to Austin's writing and character building that even as far as 2/3rds through the book I still didn't know what choice (out of several!) Violet would end up making. I knew which ones I didn't *want* her to make, and the choice I did *want* her to make, but like her, I couldn't see how it would work out, until (view spoiler).

I thought the writing was sound, the only sentence which didn't sit right I now can't find and I'm wondering if it was actually in this book or another one. The issue was that it was near the start (if it was this book). And I don't even know for sure if it was incorrect, just that it sounded wrong in my head ("was" where I thought it should be "were", I believe). Also (view spoiler)

I thoroughly recommend this book to people who enjoy Christian fiction, and I reservedly recommend it to those who don't. Remember, character building!

UPDATE:
After reading other reviews, I've found that most people didn't find the book preachy. I found this a little surprising, and I think it's largely due to Austin's ability to offset religious talk with something humourous or entirely selfish, which makes it quite amusing. I was also surprised that one person said it didn't get preachy until the end, but I thought it got less preachy and more genuine as it went on.(less)

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Jan 26, 2009 Sheri Salatin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I must say that when I started this book, I really wasn't sure if I would even stick with it to finish it. The only reason that I kept reading it all was because the writing was so good and intriguing. (It's written from first person perspective and you'll remember from my last review that I really don't care for first person perspectives) Usually about mid-way through a book, I can tell where the story is going. With this book, I wasn't sure. I love books that have a happy ending and tie things...more

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Jul 03, 2008 Kerry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-listened, historical-fiction-period, audible-library-kerry

Well, this Lynn Austen book wasn't quite the tear jerker that some of her other books were. Of course - still a few tears in the end, but this wasn't as "deep" and not as much tragedy - still some, but not as much. I especially enjoyed the setting because I recently visited Chicago and heard alot of the history that was referred to here in one of the tours I took while I was there. This was centered around the Worlds Fair after the great Chicago fire (late 1800's). This author is a wonderful sto...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Tiffany rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lynn Austin is a solid Christian author who delivers interesting and compelling books that explore faith and religion without being overly pushy or pious. Ms. Austin has previously tackled really weighty issues dealing with forgiveness, redemption, and loss of faith. So I was surprised with this story that appeared on the surface, to be a story of a very silly young woman looking for romance and love. While this book is certainly very funny, reminding me of Jane Austin's gothic romance parody, N...more Lynn Austin is a solid Christian author who delivers interesting and compelling books that explore faith and religion without being overly pushy or pious. Ms. Austin has previously tackled really weighty issues dealing with forgiveness, redemption, and loss of faith. So I was surprised with this story that appeared on the surface, to be a story of a very silly young woman looking for romance and love. While this book is certainly very funny, reminding me of Jane Austin's gothic romance parody, Northanger Abbey, this book does have depth and the characters are realistic and interesting.

Violet has just graduated from Madame Beachamp's Ladies College where she has learned how to speak french, the art of conversing endlessly about the weather, and how to behave in the best society. She returns home in triumph to discover that her father is engaged to be married to a woman she despises. Along with this news, she learns that her mother, who had supposedly died when she was young is alive and her parents had divorced when Violet was young. Violet is also being pursued by a very suitable, but incredibly boring young man. In order to escape marriage, prevent her father's marriage, and to find her mother, she heads to Chicago to stay with her grandmother and great-aunts.

Her time in Chicago is full of adventures, including being courted by four different young men, all of whom have an agenda that does not include geniune love. Violet's grandmother and great-aunts have much to teach Violet. Through them, Violet comes to a greater understanding of both the challenges that women face in that world, but also the good things in life. Her experiences with her elderly female mentors as well as the good, funny, and boring experiences with her suitors, help shape and develop Violet's character, from a silly, over-imaginative young woman to a thoughtful, introspective, but lively woman with the ability to make her own decisions.

This book is filled with a lot of humor which adds a light touch to the realistic portrayals of the falseness of upper society, the dregs of poverty faced by immigrants, and the way women were treated by legally and by society in the 19th century.

The characters are strongly written and experience growth and change in a believable manner. The events described in the book are plausible and interesting.

(And somehow, I've managed to make this book seem deadly dull when it wasn't that at all. Sorry for that. )
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May 26, 2012 Noni rated it 4 of 5 stars

A charming read about a young woman's pursuit for adventure during the time of the Chicago exposition. The author clevely creates a picture of life during that period in history as Violet has come to Chicago on a quest. Staying with her grandmother and aunts, Violet is introduced to a variety of ways of life from the the project of Jane Addams and women's suffrage movement to the superficial whirl of the upper class. Her Aunt Agnes has a mission to secure a marriage for Violet with one of the pr...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Liz Collins added it

Shelves: lynn-austin

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Jan 18, 2011 Cassandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, christian-fiction

This was a very quick read for me, light reading on a Friday night. I fully agree with one of the other reviewers who said that the setting was fantastic. Austin's presentation of the World Fair was so vivid that when I finished the book, I immediately asked my husband if we could find a way to travel back in time so that we could visit it!

The only character I was really interested in was Silas. The rest were very stereotypical and didn't come alive. The plot... for some reason, I kept turning t...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a mixed reaction to this novel. On the one hand, I like how well the author evokes her setting, recreating the slums and tenements of Chicago and bringing the 1893 World's Fair to life. I also like how she focuses aspects of the story around the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and shows how it was still affecting people's lives twenty-two years later. What I don't like is how long the story is. There's a lot of padding in this novel and I think it would have been much better at half the length...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Lola4 rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have been trudging through the Kindle freebies and this is by far my favorite--A complex but cute story, well-planned and composed in a humorous first-person style that lets you see 1893 Chicago through the heroine's innocent eyes, interpreted by a brain addled by too much True Romance and True Detective pulp fiction. Our sheltered Violet, fresh out of finishing school, goes to Chicago ostensibly to visit her father's relatives, but is in actuality playing detective seeking the "unsuitable" mo...more I have been trudging through the Kindle freebies and this is by far my favorite--A complex but cute story, well-planned and composed in a humorous first-person style that lets you see 1893 Chicago through the heroine's innocent eyes, interpreted by a brain addled by too much True Romance and True Detective pulp fiction. Our sheltered Violet, fresh out of finishing school, goes to Chicago ostensibly to visit her father's relatives, but is in actuality playing detective seeking the "unsuitable" mother who abandoned her. The father (and step-mom-to-be), grandmother, and three great-aunts all have decided (after learning the hard way) that they have found the true calling in life and are trying to spare the heroine pain by putting her into their chosen box--for her own good, of course. As she journeys into the various relative's worlds we receive a history lessons on turn-of-the-century America. Set against the backdrop of the Columbia World Exposition, she meets four suitors who exemplify the role each one of the well-intentioned relatives (except for the suffragette aunt who isn't too hot on marriage at all) is trying to push her into. She discovers three of the suitors do not love her but just want a marriage that will advance their own goals and she is just handy to meet their needs, and the fourth suitor appears to be a criminal; so much for true love. This is not only a romance but also a detective story and Violet ends up with about a dozen questions she wants answered before her father forces her to return home. To do so, she cannot break ties with the fourth suitor since his knowledge and contacts in the underworld come in very handy for her quests. We learn that most of the family's sorrows were caused by the stern, legalistic, control-freak grandfather who tried to push all of them into his choice of box, just as they are trying to do to poor Violet, so everyone learns an important lesson about caging others in. My only complaint about this book was that I found the third quarter dragged for me. The outings with her various relatives became just more of the same, until the lessons she learned in these outings started to coalesce into answers in the last quarter. A good lesson in the importance of your children finding God's choice of the calling He has for them, and the dangers of parents (or anyone) playing God with other people's lives.(less)

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Nov 08, 2009 Katy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was a lot of fun. It won a Christy award, so it is clean (yea) and it's religious message was not overdone or overpowering (bonus). It's historical fiction and is set in Chicago during the world's fair just before the turn of the century. You get to march with suffragettes, wear bloomers, visit Jane Adam's Hull House, hear Robert Moody preach, and of course, visit the fair or "the white city." As a bonus, the residents reminisce about the Chicago Fire and you learn all about that, too!...more

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Aug 12, 2009 Auntie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished

This was a summer book club read. We wanted a "light" read , and this was just perfect. It's a historical novel, set in Chicago around the time of the World's Fair. There's much to immerse oneself in history here. These were times when women were campaigning to get the vote and others were becoming more involved in settlement work (Social Work.) As a young woman the protagonist has choices for the direction her life can take as represented by her maternal aunts. We forget how different life was...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Margaret Metz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I know it's cliche, but I have a HUGE wish list of books - and only so much time and money. This is one that had been on the list for a while and I'm a little ashamed to say that I didn't put as much emphasis on it because the cover just didn't grab me. Let me tell you something - what's inside is one of the most entertaining stories I've read in a long time. I instantly added Lynn Austin as a favorite author after finishing this book.

Violet is such an incredible character. She experiences so mu...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-romance-read, all-time-favorites, christian-romance

I have found a new favorite author. I love her books. This book is a "coming- of-age," "going on a quest" novel. It takes place in Chicago in 1893 during the World's Fair. The Fair plays a very important role in this book. Violet is on a quest to find the mother that abandoned her as well as a husband. She goes to her Grandmother's home and gets to know all 3 of her great-aunts as well. Each had some unique experience to offer Violet. Violet discovers herself through her family history- the expe...more

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Aug 28, 2009 rjp316 rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book. I found the historical aspect of it to be very interesting – it was written during the summer of 1893 in Chicago at the time of the Worlds Fair. I thought that Austin did a great job with her description of everything that I could almost smell the slum areas as she was describing them. The main character, Violet, a very proper young women of 20, had a huge imagination that was a little juvenile but funny. I also liked that each of her Aunts, Father, and Grandmother, they are s...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Reagan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was one of those books that I thought were just alright until the end. After I finished it I discovered that I really did like it! I loved that Violet's opinions on love were very mature. Most people I know that want love want it for a superficial or ignorant reason. But Violet understood that pain often accompanied love and she really just wanted a companion. She wanted a man to support her and help her to thrive rather than snuff her out. It was a pretty predictable book, but when you wri...more This was one of those books that I thought were just alright until the end. After I finished it I discovered that I really did like it! I loved that Violet's opinions on love were very mature. Most people I know that want love want it for a superficial or ignorant reason. But Violet understood that pain often accompanied love and she really just wanted a companion. She wanted a man to support her and help her to thrive rather than snuff her out. It was a pretty predictable book, but when you write a romance novel like this, it's going to be predictable. I definitely saw it coming from about 200 pages away, but I was SO happy that Silas McClure ended up being a detective rather than a thief. It made me love their relationship even more. Yes, it would've added a nice twist for her to fall in love with the "bad boy" (and I suppose, she essentially did...), but the fact that she loved mysteries and he was a detective just made it all the more perfect. It also helped the situation with Violet's father...he would have never let her marry a "sleazy elixir salesman in a baggy plaid suit," but his own hired detective would be more acceptable. I also really appreciated Violet's realization of God. Yes, God loves her and wants the best for her. The religion didn't play a huge part (I wouldn't categorize this book as a Christian book, necessarily), but it definitely shaped who Violet became in the end. I loved watching her grow and develop into the God-loving woman she became. She was finally okay with herself and her husband-less situation. If she couldn't marry the man who loved her most she wouldn't marry at all. I did like that she had standards of who she would marry and she didn't settle for less even though she might have been content. She was set on marrying for perfect love and nothing less. I was a little disappointed in her rejection of Silas after their kiss, though she didn't deserve a thief, he was still a pretty wonderful guy. She might never have accepted him if he hadn't admitted that he was a great citizen. Anyway, all in all, this was a really good book! :)(less)

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Jul 13, 2009 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! Such a fun, entertaining read. The main character's imagination had me laughing quite often. Most of her wandering thoughts were hilarious. There were many funny thoughts involving speculation about the people around her, but I thought this one was funny too:

"It didn't take long for the view of flat, monotonous prairie land to bore me. I wondered if God had run out of ideas after creating the mountain ranges and the mighty Mississippi River and had nodded off when He was suppo...more

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Sep 12, 2010 Kasi Lou rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

When Violet Hayes ventures to Chicago during the time of the World's Fair, her one goal is to find her mother, who has been missing from her life since she was nine. Naïve, impressionable, and highly imaginative (having secretly ingested a diet of romance novels and true crime stories at school), Violet stays in Chicago under the care of her grandmother and her three great aunts. It is here that her perspectives on life are opened as she is exposed to the world about her--from high society to th...more

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Aug 22, 2009 Meg J. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Meg by: April Sprague

Shelves: 2009, bookclub

I'm not one to try to predict the endings of books, but I had this one pegged from the first chapter. And I think I'm a bad person, because this book about an innocent, naive, simple girl left me almost feeling bored. Where's the danger, excitement, etc.? The only "danger" was when she went out without being chaperoned!!!

Quote: p. 232

"Ladies," she began, "I'm well aware that the majority of you are, at this very moment, trapped in the confines of a whalebone corset. But you might be shocked to...more

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Oct 14, 2012 Neena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, my-most-favourite, books-i-can-read-anytime-again

The book is set against the backdrop of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Violet visits her three great aunts as an excuse to have an escape from home as she is not comfortable with the idea of her father’s impending Second marriage. During the journey she meets Silas McClure and later more gentlemen through her great aunts. And in the end she finds her true love. The story is really very fresh and humorous. This was the first book by Lynn Austin for me that made me fall in love with her wr...more

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Dec 26, 2008 Librarianforhim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-reading, christy-award-winners

Twenty-year old Violet has never been outside of her home town of Lockport, Illinois. She longs to see new things and to experience true love. However, it's the 1890s and proper women don't do such things. When Violet discovers her mother isn't sick as Violet thought she was, Violet asks to go visit her grandmother in Chicago.

She plans to look for her mother and to see the World's Exposition which is in Chicago. Along the way she acquires a number of suitors and discovers what she wants out of...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Knitpurlgurl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Violet Rose Hayes is a 20 year old woman in the late 1800s. Having finished charm school, she visits her aunts in Chicago under the guise of being presented to society and finding a proper husband, when in reality she visits to find out what happened to her estranged mother. As she stays with her aunts and grandmother, she discovers that these women all have different stories, different perspectives, and different paths they wish Violet to take in life. Her Aunt Agnes is determined to see to it...more

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May 24, 2011 Carly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Really like Lynn Austin's books. Christian fiction without being pushy. Violet is a girl who just graduated from finishing school and is hoping to be swept off her feet by a handsome, eligible bachelor, preferrably a rich one. She discovers that her mother, who she always thought was severely ill and in a hospital, left her and her father when she was nine. Violet heads to Chicago with the goal of finding her mother and hopefully stopping her father's upcoming marriage. In Chicago she lives with...more

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Aug 12, 2008 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wish we could give half stars in the rating category, as I would rate this as 3 and a half stars. It took a few chapters for me to connect with the main character, but once I did, I enjoyed this one. This is the story of a woman searching for her mother, who left when she was a young child. I enjoyed the discoveries she made along the journey.

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May 01, 2013 Loraine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-to-z-challenge, historical-fiction, romance, 50-states-challenge

A Proper Pursuit is a delightful romp through the year 1893 as Violet tries to find her true love. She goes to Chicago to stay with her grandmother and three great aunts. Each lady has a different kind of beau in mind for Violet but none of the beaus is exactly right. At the same time, she is trying to solve the disappearance of an important person in her life using each of the beaus to assist her. Only when Violet finds her real first love does she find exactly the right man for her.

I loved th...more

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Aug 06, 2009 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 04, 2013 Helen rated it 3 of 5 stars

A good read. I struggled with liking Violet, the main character. However,Lynn Austin has a wonderful way of putting you into the time period in which she sets her stories. This story was set in the late 1800s when women were fighting for the right to vote and be seen as intelligent, capable human beings. Violet stuggles with what she wants in life. Feeling pressured to marry before she is an old maid at 21, she desires to marry for love rather than duty.

I was a bit disappointed in the lack of em...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Rachel Brand rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian, historical, lynn-austin, library, romance, library-challenge-2013, 2013, favourites

This is the second Lynn Austin novel that I've read and the second that I've truly struggled to pin-point any flaws in. Austin is a fabulous story-teller, and I'm still blown away by how she managed to create such a rich and unusual story. Initially I was a little worried that Violet's aunts and grandmother would be caricatured, given their incredibly different personalities, but as each women's backstory was revealed, they became far more real. The same can be said for Violet's multiple beaus....more This is the second Lynn Austin novel that I've read and the second that I've truly struggled to pin-point any flaws in. Austin is a fabulous story-teller, and I'm still blown away by how she managed to create such a rich and unusual story. Initially I was a little worried that Violet's aunts and grandmother would be caricatured, given their incredibly different personalities, but as each women's backstory was revealed, they became far more real. The same can be said for Violet's multiple beaus. I wasn't entirely sure about the idea of Violet courting so many different men (I'm not a fan of love-triangles) but her time in Chicago provided a fascinating insight into the ways women were expected to live their lives in this period. Very little in this story felt romanticised, and I'm sure no reader is going to envy Violet being forced to choose between multiple marriages of convenience.

Possibly my favourite thing about this book is that I didn't know who Violet was going to end up with, or whether she'd actually find her mother. It was until the last fifty or so pages that I suddenly realised the truth of one of her beaus, and wondered if there was hope for him and Violet to be together. Up until then, I was wondering if Violet would return home, more mature and more knowledgeable about the world, but still waiting to meet the right man. It wouldn't have been the most romantic ending, but Austin seems to be more about realism than romance. Likewise, I wondered if perhaps Violet would never discover the truth about why her mother left, but the journey she'd gone on had helped her learn about herself instead. In the end, I was satisfied with how this storyline was concluded. Violet learnt a lot and still hoped for reconciliation with her mother, but everything wasn't tied up neatly.

Honestly, I can't sing this book's praises enough. The setting and historical details were spot on, and I particularly loved that Austin managed to show the different routes available for Violet without pin-pointing the one path in life that works for every woman. Aunt Matt had her heart-broken and threw herself into suffrage, but married women can also support the cause of women's rights. And not all issues are black and white, like Violet realises when she sees how the changes in the factories are making life difficult for women who have to work from home. And although her grandmother's work in the slums is admirable, the young aspiring minister she meets is too wrapped up in his work to give Violet the attention she longs for. It was sad yet encouraging to see how Aunt Agnes had made the best out of a companionable marriage, and Aunt Birdie was perhaps the most insightful out of all the women, even if she did obviously have memory problems. Violet doesn't have to choose one of these four routes for herself, but she can learn from her grandmother and aunts' experiences and figure out what she wants out of her own life.

Some readers might be disappointed that the ending is left so open, but I quite liked this. I'm sure that Violet still has a lot of growing to do--after all, most of this book took place during the space of six weeks--but I can still imagine the future I think Violet would have. All in all, this is a wonderful book and Lynn Austin is definitely becoming one of my favourite authors. And the best part about only recently discovering Lynn Austin? She has such a large backlist for me to explore! :) 5*(less)

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Jan 01, 2013 Bonnie rated it 3 of 5 stars

A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin is a good read. The heroine, Violet Hayes, is living in Lockport, Illinois when she discovers her mother is not in a sanatorium, but had abandoned the family years ago. She has just graduated from Madame Beuchamps' School for Young Ladies and she decides to spend the summer in Chicago with her three aunts. She doesn't tell anyone she is going to try and locate her mother. She gets invovled with activities with each of her aunts: women's liberastion, high society a...more

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Jul 08, 2010 Amber Stokes rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book surprised me--in a good way! When I first started the book, I confess that I thought it wouldn't be very deep, and it took me a while to really get into it. But about a quarter of the way through, my thoughts really changed.

Violet Hayes, the main character, annoyed me at the beginning, and I felt that the other characters were interesting, but maybe a bit too quirky. However, Violet really grows during her trip to Chicago, and I began to feel closer to her, as well as the other charact...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

This is now considered a favorite book of mine. It starts out very funny and gets more serious as the story progresses, yet still has humor sprinkled throughout. Violet, the main character, is very imaginative and humorous. She is honest about what she is willing to live with and what she is not, and that makes her character real to me. The time period is 1893, set in Chicago. The Great Fire, The World's Fair and issues dealing with women striving to earn their right to vote are all referred to...more

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About Lynn Austin

FROM AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: For many years, Lynn Austin nurtured a desire to write but frequent travels and the demands of her growing family postponed her career. When her husband's work took Lynn to Bogota, Colombia, for two years, she used the B.A. she'd earned at Southern Connecticut State University to become a teacher. After returning to the U.S., the Austins moved to Anderson, Indiana, Thunder B...more FROM AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: For many years, Lynn Austin nurtured a desire to write but frequent travels and the demands of her growing family postponed her career. When her husband's work took Lynn to Bogota, Colombia, for two years, she used the B.A. she'd earned at Southern Connecticut State University to become a teacher. After returning to the U.S., the Austins moved to Anderson, Indiana, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and later to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

It was during the long Canadian winters at home with her children that Lynn made progress on her dream to write, carving out a few hours of writing time each day while her children napped. Lynn credits her early experience of learning to write amid the chaos of family life for her ability to be a productive writer while making sure her family remains her top priority.

Extended family is also very important to Austin, and it was a lively discussion between Lynn, her mother, grandmother (age 98), and daughter concerning the change in women's roles through the generations that sparked the inspiration for her novel Eve's Daughters.

Along with reading, two of Lynn's lifelong passions are history and archaeology. While researching her Biblical fiction series, Chronicles of the Kings, these two interests led her to pursue graduate studies in Biblical Backgrounds and Archaeology through Southwestern Theological Seminary. She and her son traveled to Israel during the summer of 1989 to take part in an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Timnah. This experience contributed to the inspiration for her novel Wings of Refuge.

Lynn resigned from teaching to write full-time in 1992. Since then she has published twelve novels. Three of her historical novels, Hidden Places, Candle in the Darkness, and Fire by Night have won Christy Awards in 2002, 2003, and 2004 for excellence in Christian Fiction. Fire by Night was also one of only five inspirational fiction books chosen by Library Journal for their top picks of 2003, and All She Ever Wanted was chosen as one of the five inspirational top picks of 2005. Lynn's novel Hidden Places has been made into a movie for the Hallmark Channel, starring actress Shirley Jones.
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More about Lynn Austin...

Books by Lynn Austin

Candle in the Darkness (Refiners Fire #1)

Gods and Kings (Chronicles of the Kings #1)

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“In the past I had often tried to escape the grown-up world of sorrow through my imagination- dreaming that a handsome young lieutenant would ride to my rescue or that a great empresario would discover my musical talents and whisk me away. I had envisioned knights in shining armor and happily ever after scenes to escape from rules or boredom or pain; including a vision of my mother walking through our front door whole and well again. Now I knew that a lifetime of escape led to a life like Aunt Bertie's. My imagination was a gift, but I had to live in the real world. My eyes had been opened this summer to poverty and crime and abuse and I needed to use my imagination not to escape, but to help people like Irina and Katya, to make my own contribution as the women in the women's pavilion had done. I couldn't do it in the same way Jane Adams and my grandmother and Aunt Mat were, but I would find my own way and my own time.” — 3 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1793400.A_Proper_Pursuit?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348943920l/1793400.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1793400.A_Proper_Pursuit?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin[/url]

A Proper Pursuit

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