Ozark Sweetheart

Mozark Marriages #1

by Helen Gray

Callie Blake can't afford to fall in love

She's too busy helping her family survive the Depression. When she returns home to their Missouri farm, she sees her childhood crush, Trace Gentry, and it stirs up old dreams she tries hard to ignore. Trace is kind, handsome and wealthy. He'd never be interested in a poor girl like her—would he?

Successful businessman Trace is crazy about Callie, and he knows she thinks she's not good enough for him. But he's clueless how to woo her. Until he devises a plan that will prove his love to Callie and make all her dreams come true.

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Helen Brown grew up in a small Missouri town and changed colors when she married her pastor and became Helen Gray. They have three grown children, a daughter and two sons. Now retired, with the children grown and gone from the nest, she and her supportive husband still live in their native Missouri Ozarks. He likes to roam the woods, hunt and fish. She enjoys gospel, sacred, and concert band music and is a member of ACFW. Her idea of sheer luxury is to curl up with a good book and a nice cold Coke. She thanks God for the time and opportunity to spin Christian romance and mystery stories, and considers it an added blessing if they should touch others in even a small way.

Reviews

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

Callie and Trace have known each other for some time, but it isn't until she comes back home after witnessing a crime that they are thrown together often. Callie is determined to protect her family from the evil that has followed her home and Trace is determined to get Callie to notice him.

[Teri-K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've really enjoyed this series about three young women growing up in the Missouri Ozarks during the Depression. Like these girls I grew up in a rural area, and I lived about two decades near the Ozarks, so it delights me that these stories and their characters feel authentic. Every once in a while I think, "Yes, that's what it's like...".

I'm very fond of books about ordinary people, with siblings who get into trouble, parents who struggle to feed everyone, good people who care about others but can be selfish, too. I like the little glimpses into their lives an relationships that books like this can give me, and I think the author does a good job creating believable people who all have their strengths and weaknesses, problems and dreams.

I read these completely out of order, which wasn't a problem at all, but now that I've read the first I'm going to go back and read the other two once more. They are simple stories that touched my heart and made me want to revisit Deer Lick, Missouri again.

[Theresa Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book captures some of what it may have been like to survive during the Great Depression. My mother having lived through this time period will identify with some of the hardships. The message of what true wealth really is applies to us today.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

(violence) As a romance this book is awful. There is no emotional depth that expands the relationships between these two characters. We don't see their love growing. As a historical fiction, the author tries to cram way too many stories into one small book.

This is a depression survival story. A gangster/ bootleg story, a helping community story, a contrast between having what you need and never having what you need and the loss of a friend's mother. Any one of these would have made the book interesting, but all of them together made everything rush by without logic or detail.

However, if you can put all that aside and look at it like a fictional memoir, it works. Life generally is cluttered and disorganized, so the story doesn't have to have a climax or tension between the main characters for that.

[Nadine Keels · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant read! I didn't expect the elements of danger in this novel, and they weren't an unwelcome surprise. My thanks to author Helen Brown Gray for offering this book in a giveaway. I didn't realize until I was about to read it that she'd signed it to me, saying she hoped the book would bless me, and it did: a quick, clean pleasure read when I needed one.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this historical fiction story set during the Great Depression in Missouri. Themes of charity towards the needy, blurring the lines between rich and poor, honoring God in every situation, and romance the way God can surprise us. I learned about community food pantries to share with each other what they did have, about living and existing to help each other at the expense of one's own happiness, and what hard, hard work with little reimbursement really is. You'll enjoy this story!

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, Ozark Sweetheart!!! So beautifully written. Had me in tears in places and laughing as well in others. I loved the beautiful ending....so happy and inspirational. You did an amazing job on this one Helen! Thanks so much for sharing your God given talent with us!! Would definitely recommend this book to anyone wishing to read a good old fashioned romance story.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful story set in a small town during The Great Depression. I found myself transported to another place and fell in love with the characters.

[Walter Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Good 1930's Christian Romance, set in Ozarks. This would have been a 4.0 if the "message" wasn't so heavy handed.