The Prodigal Girl, No. 56

by Grace Livingston Hill

Betty Thornton knew what she wanted, and it wasn't her father's boring lifestyle. So when Betty's father insists on moving the family to a farm in Vermont, she turns to dashing Dudley Weston—and his promises of excitement and marriage—as the answer to her problems. Then, through a terrifying chain of events, Betty finds herself abandoned in a snowstorm! Now her only hope for survival is a stranger . . . but can she trust him?

Grace Livingston Hill is the beloved author of more than 100 books. Read and enjoyed by millions, her wholesome stories contain adventure, romance, and the heartwarming triumphs of people faced with the problems of life and love.

Genres: Christian Fiction, Fiction, Romance, Christian, Christian Romance, Historical Fiction, Clean Romance

282 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

also wrote under the pseudonym Marcia MacDonald
also published under the name Grace Livingston Hill Lutz

A popular author of her day, she wrote over 100 novels and numerous short stories of religious and Christian fiction. Her characters were most often young female ingénues, frequently strong Christian women or those who become so within the confines of the story.

niece to Isabella MacDonald Alden

Reviews

[Majenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book features one of many "Bettys" in Grace Livingston Hill's books, and early on, Betty's little sister shocks her family by announcing that her teacher taught the class that their "aunt's sisters were monkeys"! But when Father gets home he has gone from trying to decide what color (or even what shade of a particular color) car to buy for teenage daughter Betty, to gleaning from idle salty talk from the uncouth whippersnappers behind him on his homeward train that his dear little Betty might not be Father's Perfect Little Angel anymore....Even if those doltish dudes were dissing a totally different Betty altogether (but he has this painful feeling that they weren't), maybe the Thornton family needs to make some changes. How about moving to the country and really focusing on getting to know one another better?

What happens when one particular Thornton responds: "How about NOT?"

What happens? Another hearty serving of Grace Livingston Hill "comfort-food" reading. If 21st-century life is getting you down, take time out for nurturing your soul and spirit: "Love Endures," indeed!

Thanks for reading.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the other reviewers said something like this book almost seemed apt for today, and I think I agree. Save for some period slang, this story felt almost contemporary to me. Of course, the things that scandalized the father in this story would be scoffed at as nothing today, but then, that's kind of the point.
Anyhow, let me explain better. This, really, is a story of a father, who realizes, in an abrupt and upsetting manner, that he's been so wrapped up in work that he hasn't been paying attention to what his kids have been doing. Turns out, it's not good. Worse, they have serious attitude issues, owing to his neglect and the bad influences around them. He's ready for some desperate measures to try to fix his family, but they aren't so willing to be fixed.
I found this story very compelling, and I was eagerly rooting for the father to be able to impress upon his children the values and principles which he was shocked to discover they had drifted so far from, and for the whole family to bond.
Unlike the usual GLH, there really wasn't much of a romance here, and this one wasn't as light. The realities of the poor choices portrayed actually kind of shocked me coming from her, but this was a worthy read that I would recommend to friends.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Betty has gone bad...When Chester finally looks up from his work long enough to see his family, what he sees appalls him entirely. His oldest daughter is out drinking and smoking to all hours - she's intimate with boys. His next daughter is acting in vulgar ways, showing off her body and dancing in lewd manner in public. His son gambles and comes home drunk, and the youngest ones are talking evolution. And his wife is immersed in pop psychology and letting the children do whatever they want.

And what's amazing, this story about an entire family going to the dogs was written in 1929 - not a whole lot has really changed, has it? His solution is to take them away from temptation, to return to his own personal roots by moving them out to the family farm in the dead of winter. The results of that experiment makes for an interesting story.

Sure, things get preachy on occasion, but honestly I liked the sermonizing too. There's a lot here to think about, and to discuss with your own family about how to live in a Christ-like manner in a world that wants you to do anything but.

Makes you wonder what the author would write about today's world...

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this 1926 book set around Christmastime. Just as he makes it in the business world, Chester Thornton finds that his children have gone morally wayward. He wastes no time in doing something about it, and I loved the 180° transformation of the family. It did get to be a little extreme in the end what with the accident and the Bible school and Betty being left to die outside—but that's GLH, right? As a parent, I found I could relate to this book in many ways.

Many of GLH's books have been republished (multiple times!) with romance-type covers and summaries. Although some of her books' plotlines are mainly romances, this book had next to none (at least, no real romance), and the "happy ending" seemed pasted on—perhaps because her readers expected it?

Not her best book, although I did enjoy some of the 1920s slang—"perfectly poisonous" and "what's the little old idea?" will be running through my head for awhile, I think.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised to find a GLH novel I had never read. This one didn't ring quite as true as some of the others in my opinion. The children's transformation seemed a bit forced, and I didn't quite like the sermon in the form of the pastor/teacher's exposition - it seemed a bit too preachy. Most of her books introduce the topic more naturally, in the course of conversation. Also, Betty's adventures seemed a bit much for one person, especially setting out to walk 40+ miles in the snow with no winter clothes on.

Still, it was GLH...I read her books for the comfortable sense of what life used to be like, instead of today's electronics and technology and fast-paced mumbo-jumbo.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Christian romance with a timeless appeal. Grace Livingston Hill may be long gone, but she lives on through her writings...and for good reason.

[Lady Tea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 2 / 5

Alright, I'm sorry, but twice now I've tried to read this, and I haven't been able to do it. Despite how gorgeous the cover is and what a beautiful scene from the story that promises to be, I just can't.

I understand the whole "repentant sinner" angle of everything, I really do; only, couldn't the author have made Betty even a bit more likeable and less despicable? Like...I'm aware that Grace Livingston Hill makes her characters either good OR bad, but she's occasionally thrown in some side characters that had good points about them and at least had the potential to change for the better.

In the case of Betty and pretty much all her siblings, the only thing I want to do is give them all a big spanking. There's no point in treating them with kid gloves and trying to teach them a lesson: they are just all obnoxious, ill-mannered, undisciplined, terrible children. I realize that part of it is the fault of the parents for not noticing and excusing them and letting things get that far, but still!

Just like in Job's Niece, I think the author went too far, and therefore that demoralizes me and discourages me from reading this.

Just...please, just forget it and move on. on. ON.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when I first got saved back in the '80's! I loved it then and I still love it. It's been over 20 years since I first read it and thoroughly enjoyed it again. This was the first book I read by Grace Livingston Hill and it hooked me completely. I have read others by her but this is my favorite by far!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like these clean Christian romances by Grace Livingston Hill; however, I will say that her good characters are almost too perfect and her bad ones horribly evil, which can make them amusing although that's not the intent.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book years ago but didn't own a copy. I recently bought one at the local library sale. A FB discussion on GLH made me decide to reread it.

GLH was a wonderful storyteller; that cannot be denied regardless of one's opinion of her subject matter. Her work has a lovely flow and her descriptions are beautiful. For example, she described the moon in the night sky as "a silver boat on a sapphire sea."

This particular story tells about a modern family with a Christian background and who are church attendees. The father is a business man; the mother is busy with the social side; the five children are all busy with school and various social activities. Then the father overhears two boys on the train discussing his oldest daughter in a way that makes it clear that she is not behaving in the way she should. Then he finds out that she is drinking and smoking; his oldest son is drinking and gambling. Even the younger kids are developing attitudes and they are all pretty much atheists

So he immediately makes arrangements to remove them from the city, up to his family farm in the mountains of Vermont. The rest of the story is what happens - how the family reacts and whether they will ever be a real family again.

The surprising thing about this book is that is was written in 1929. Other than music, fashion and the brands of cars (the dad buys his daughter a Mermaid Eight!), it could be set in the 21st century.

A word of warning to non-Christians. This book is extremely un-PC and is overtly Christian in its views. You may be highly offended and/or incensed by the contents.

[Wendi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is better than her usual because it breaks some of her formulaic conventions.
Set in the 20s I think. A father on the edge of success in business discovers his children have gone to the devil, drinking, gambling, smoking, dancing , and they do not even believe in God. He wastes no time working to rescue them from the clutches of sin. Never has one of GLH's heroines begun with this much depravity. She smokes, drinks, makes out with boys and even calls her parents by their first names.

The basic formula is still here, of course. I could wish for less cringey treatment of the 'coloured' maids, cooks, and housekeepers and I wish the little mother was made of sterner stuff.

Oh, but the doughnuts made from scratch, the nut cake and pies, the roasted potatoes and delicate baby veggies in aspic never fail. I mean that sincerely.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading 100 year old books. Wild child then did compare. Trying to reconcile Christianity with reality then does also compare. The quaint language, ideas, lifestyles are all fascinating. It really illustrates how our society was loosing its order and becoming the chaos of today.

I learned about companionate marriage; sounds like an ideal marriage for this day and age. You can change your mind up to a point. When children come it is too late to change your mind. You are really tied together by DNA in a child, you can not change you mind then.

Anyway fun to read and compare to my previous read, "Mrs. Fletcher". Another wayward child that mom thought was a good boy. But the porn, BJs, divorce that were the norms in Mrs. Fletcher could not even be mentioned in this book. Mrs. Fletcher could have no conclusion because of the lack of social standards today. Too sad. At least 100 years ago we had standards to aspire to.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved reading this book because it is about a father in the 1920s who, on his commute home overhears some of his daughter's male friends from school discuss her in a way to show not only their low morals, but possibly also his dear daughter, Betty's. When he gets home he starts to listen to the degraded conversation of all his children at his dinner table about all this is happening in the public schools - including evolution. He realizes-is it too late?- how much he has neglected the upbringing and Christian education of his own children as well as the neglect of his own spiritual condition. He makes a wild plan and takes the children out of school and moves the family out to the old family homestead in the country. While there, he gets a pastor to tutor his children, and the pastor tells them of the Savior. Most unfortunately, the author has the pastor put forth the false doctrine of deistic evolution and a pre-adamic race as an answer to evolution. In spite of this really Huge, Huge fault in the tale, I liked that he used "homeschooling" and got a pastor to tutor his children. Also, when he felt it was safe to go back home, the father collected other parents to begin a Christian school. Inside this story is the story of his Betty, rebellious, heathen, who becomes a Christian and finds romance. Moms who like romance, homeschooling and /or Christian education and old fashioned tales may enjoy this story as well.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think you have to keep in mind this was written many years ago and has a certain dramatic flair to it that you wouldn't see today. Having said that, I have to say that it kept my interest and I really liked the setting of a Vermont farm in winter. Also, I almost felt as if I was with Betty as she strived to make her way back home. Her thoughts and emotions during that period were expressed very well. I thought the ending was rather abrupt and would have liked a little more information....like did Betty ever get her watch back, and at what point did her mother realize they weren't poor after all. (Certainly when her husband buys Betty that expensive gift at the end!) I think any author who's work stands the test of time has to be admired, and this is certainly true of Grace Livingston Hill.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grace Livingston Hill's "The Prodigal Girl" was published in 1929 and the story is set in 1920, a town in Pennsylvania. I always love reading Grace's stories for the religious and romance angle, this has romance but it is more a family centered and a father's shock at his children turning too worldly. I especially liked the minister's response to the children's questions about evolution and not believing in God. Also "there is nothing new under the sun" the so called experts are telling the parents to let the kids be independent.

Story in short- Chester Thorton has had a shock and the need to escape to a simpler place so his children have a chance at being good citizens.

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“If people would really study the Bible more they would find in it a liberal education. They would find wonders in it that have never yet
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been revealed. But they are being discovered now. It is marvelous how the scriptures have been opened up in even the last ten years. Discoveries, history, the shaping of nations, archaeology, are all giving keys to that which has long been locked away from the knowledge of man, and it will not be long before the world is startled into knowing that the old despised Book has all the time contained the germs of all knowledge.” What a scream he was. The idea of talking about archaeology! When
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everyone knew that they were digging up bones of extinct animals that were living millions of years ago, just perfectly proving that the Bible was all off, and evolution was the only thing. But of course, a minister had to pretend to believe all those things or he wouldn’t be paid his salary.


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“Suppose we go away from the table, anyway, Chester,” she suggested, “so that the maid can clear away. You’ve scarcely eaten a thing. Jane, you and Doris take your pudding up to the sitting room while your father finishes. He is all tired out and ought not to be disturbed while he eats. Take another cup of coffee, Chester, dear. Your nerves are all worn out. You must have had a hard day today. I’m afraid things haven’t gone as well as you hoped at the office. But never mind, dear! Don’t let it worry you. Whatever
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comes, we’ve got each other. Remember that and be thankful.” “Got each other!” exclaimed Chester strickenly. “But have we?” “Of course we have,” cheered his wife. “Now dear, drink that hot coffee and you’ll feel better. Come, and then we’ll go into the library and you’ll lie on the couch and tell me all about it. Then by and by when you are rested I’ll call the children and you can talk to them, or perhaps tomorrow morning. You know you are in no frame of

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mind to talk calmly to them, and in the classes I’ve been attending about child rearing they say it is simply fatal to talk excitedly to a child, that it arouses antagonism, and that really is the worst thing we can do. You know really they are human beings like ourselves and have to be given a chance to express themselves. They won’t stand for radical discipline such as you and I passed through. Really Chester, the children of today are
quite, quite different from a few years ago. You know things have changed, and
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young people have developed. There is a more independent attitude—” “Stop!” cried Thornton. “Stop right there! Eleanor, if you have swallowed that rot whole and are going to take that attitude I shall go
mad. Express themselves! I feel as if the whole universe has gone crazy.”



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Well, Betty could have the car now that she had been coaxing for for over a year. Of course she was a little young for a car, only a trifle over seventeen, but all her friends had them, and it would relieve the situation for Eleanor wonderfully
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if she could have the family car free for herself and not have it continually off with Betty and her friends. Of course Chris would be upset over Betty having a car, but Chris could wait another year or two. A boy wasn’t really fit to own a car till college age, though of course some of them did. But there were other things for Chris, and his time would come later. And there was Jane and the twins! Oh, it would be rare to buy Christmas gifts this year with no grim ghost of want hovering behind to restrain his every impulse

❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert

Betty kind of reminded me of a more hard boiled Betty Anderson, from the old time radio show "Father Knows Best". I think Jim Anderson could learn something from Chester Thorton. I looked up the Mermaid 6 car: the description tells what a rich father would give his daughter in 1930. LOL Grace knew her times well.
I cringed every time I heard Betty call her parents by their first name. I did not care for her until after her accident when she was saved by David, prior to that she kept running away from responsibility, she should have stayed for Dudley's parents but maybe that would be asking too much from a teen to do, especially if the parents want to know the circumstances of their son's behavior. I loved the Eleanor was so loving to her husband and he was thinking of his family. I can understand Betty after giving her word having a hard time not following througj, the young have such codes. I loved that Chris stepped up and all the children started to enjoy Bible school and the minister and Thorton's need to help more children and parents. Loved this story! I kept waiting for David to meet Betty, I knew it would come and the student clergy came at the perfect time.

[Kelly Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first GLH book, which I picked up at my grandmother's. I was intrigued by the simplicity of the novel's fundamental Christian themes told in a setting of simpler times. Admittedly, the first half of the book was more challenging to get through because the perceived demise of the family resulting from their evil ways is told almost strictly from Chester, the father. The second half of the novel which provides an account of the family's trials and tribulations while in exile on a small Vermont farm is a more rewarding read; particularly Betty's journey from a life of sin to redemption.

[Vickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this paragraph I had to share it with anyone that would listen. "Now you know, however much you may pretend that you are your own masters and mistresses, that that isn't the case at all. You are all our children, and in the eyes of the law - you are still under age and therefore under our control. Also, you have a moral obligation, whether you own it or not, to obey me as long as I am supporting you, whether you like it or not." This book was written in 1929, but I heard basically the same lecture in the 1970's. Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down.

[Rosabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first experience reading GLH, and I was pleasantly suprised. I expected the story to drag on, but it was actually an intriguing and quick-paced story. My only qualms are some weird theology, a good deal of repetition, and more than a little melodrama. All in all though, I liked it, and would read another GLH book without hesitation.

[Diana Ware · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book. These books written in the early 1900's are so apropos today it is unbelievable. She goes much deeper in to the spiritual side of her characters than today's Christian Romance writers do. They are not just a good read, they are a spiritual journey.

[Cynthiakay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much!!! What a great story of true love and God's redemption... so beautiful and so sweet brought me to tears!!! Loved the story of the prodigal girl!!!! A beautiful picture of salvation....

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

It just lacked a certain je ne sais quoi that I expect from Grace Livingston Hill. Legitimately, I don't know what it is, I just finished with a vague disappointment instead of the pleasant sigh I usually finish her stuff with.

[Lera Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never Disappointed !!!

Grace Livingston Hill’s novels always captures my attention, warms my heart, and gives me deeper insight into what it means to live a life pleasing to my Lord and Savior.

[Glen Anniskette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good clean read. Bible based.

It's refreshing to find these books written so long ago yet so remarkably relatable to today's challenges and issues. I look forward to reading more of her work.

[Partridge Public]

Hill, Grace Livingston

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first GLH book: the simplicity of the story, contrast between good and evil, along with a domestic eye for description really turned me into a fan of her fiction.

[Bonita · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read my review at... http://forhisgloryandpraise.wordpress...

[Carrie Milkanin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A timeless novel dealing with parents who doubt their parenting and rebellious children. In desperation they move to their remote farmhouse where father grew up.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite GLH ... the heroine was unlikable for the majority of the book.

[Terri Steffes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan so all her books get 5 stars from me!

[Terry Yaceyko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, enjoyable read. Loved it.