April Additional Group Read- Courting Morrow Little

[Cheryl]

is our April Additional Group Read. Here is the Goodreads Summary -

Morrow Little is haunted by the memory of the day her family was torn apart by raiding Shawnee warriors. Now that she is nearly a grown woman and her father is ailing, she must make difficult choices about the future. Several men--ranging from the undesired to the unthinkable--vie for her attentions, but she finds herself inexplicably drawn to a forbidden love that both terrifies and intrigues her. Can she betray the memory of her lost loved ones--and garner suspicion from her friends--by pursuing a life with him? Or should she seal her own misery by marrying a man she doesn't love? This sweeping tale of romance and forgiveness will envelop readers as it takes them from a Kentucky fort through the vast wilderness to the west in search of true love.

As always please remember to mark any *SPOILER COMMENTS- well so as not to spoil things for others or use the (some html is ok) and actually block out your comments.

This read goes from April 15th- May 14th. I am a bit behind on my reading right now- busy, busy time right now, but I hope to get to this soon.

So for now, Have you read anything else by Laura Frantz ? If so what, and did you enjoy it? She has several out, so do you have a favorite?

[Beth]

I've read all of Laura Frantz's novels, and it's so hard for me to choose a favorite! I love them all for various reasons. Love's Reckoning has one of my favorite male leads ever, Silas Ballantyne, although the follow-up to that story, Love's Awakening was great too!

Speaking of great male-leads, CML has one of my favorites too! I kind of wish I could read this one again for the first time - it was that good! :)

[Maria]

I really hope I can read this one with you all! This would be my first book by Laura Frantz and I so look forward to it! I need to finish a couple of books before starting it but I'll do my best to join the group read! ;)

[Anne]

Maria, I was thinking of joining for this one too, since I have the book and I loved the other Frantz book I read, The Colonel's Lady. We can push our other buddy reads if you want to join this one. :)

[Beth]

Maria wrote: "I really hope I can read this one with you all! This would be my first book by Laura Frantz and I so look forward to it! I need to finish a couple of books before starting it but I'll do my best to..."

Maria, it's a great one to start with!

[Rachel]

I'm definitely going to read this one, but I probably won't get to it until May. A lot of people have raved about Laura Frantz, but the only one of her books that I've read so far is Love's Reckoning. I really enjoyed it, but I didn't absolutely love it. Still, I'm looking forward to reading this one!

[Maria]

Anne wrote: "Maria, I was thinking of joining for this one too, since I have the book and I loved the other Frantz book I read, The Colonel's Lady. We can push our other buddy reads if you want t..."

Sounds good to me, Anne :) Can't wait to read my first Laura Frantz's book!!

Thanks, Beth! I'm really excited to "meet" this new author :)

[Anne]

Maria wrote: "Anne wrote: "Maria, I was thinking of joining for this one too, since I have the book and I loved the other Frantz book I read, The Colonel's Lady. We can push our other buddy reads ..."

Yay! :D I'm sure you will love Laura Frantz, she is very good.

[Maria]

I have a feeling I will :P Thanks!

[Anne]

No problem :)

[Caitlyn]

I am currently at about the halfway point of "The Frontiersman's Daughter" I'm liking it. I'm going to try to finish it soon and then start "Courting Morrow Little"

[Loraine]

I plan to start this one as soon as I finish Stars Collide which I am about 2/3 complete.

[Christine]

I literally just found out that this has arrived for my Interlibrary Loan! I'll probably pick it up tomorrow and get a start on it in a few days. Looking forward to it!

[Amanda]

oh my gosh! I just finished this and it was amazing! I had to get up early for Sunrise Easter service, but I stayed up too late reading due to some storylines that will remain unspoken (to avoid spoiling for those still reading or yet to read).

[Carrie]

I agree! I started it Saturday, and after Easter festivities I grabbed it and found a corner and just read until I finished it. REALLY good!

[Loraine]

Am really liking this book. Have it on my Kindle and spent the whole hour my husband was in PT today reading as fast as I could.

[Christine]

I absolutely loved this book!!! I could hardly put it down this weekend! I'm looking forward to reading more by Laura Frantz as this is my first book by her.

[Maria]

Just finished and really loved it! It was my first book by Frantz too and if all her novels are as engaging as this one, she might become one of my favourite authors! I loved every page. The characters were lovely and the story of Indian people fighting for a better future was very interesting. I loved Morrow's strength and Red Shirt's personality. Great book!!

[Tanx]

currently reading this :)

[Ruth]

Started reading this one. Much as I enjoy historical romances, I can admittedly still be a bit picky about the genre in some ways, and the reviews seemed a bit mixed to me, but so far I'm loving it. Hopefully the story can keep it up through the end. :D

[Caitlyn]

Just finished this one (Literally, like two seconds ago!) And I absolutely loved it! :)

[Rachel]

Glad to hear so many of you loved this one! I think I'll start it once I'm finished with my current read.

[Tanx]

I have just finished this book, it was alright. I enjoyed but didn't 'love' it.

- in Pa's letter to Aunt Etta, he mentioned there is only 1 guy he wants Morrow to marry to, while I think we all know who that guy is, was this revealed somewhere later in the book or have I missed it?

- was hoping to know more about Jemima & what happened to her in the end(other than her marriage) since she was pretty nasty to Morrow!

[Cheryl]

Just finished this as well and I'm in the camp of the folks that loved it! Laura Frantz just knows how to write a romance doesn't she? Whew!

I agree though Tanx I'd kinda like to know what made Jemima treat Morrow so poorly. My best guess is that she harbored jealousy for Morrow her whole life and she just let it fester and turn into something truly mean and nasty.

[Cheryl]

Also, just a question- did anyone else feel like the ending was just a tad abrupt? (view spoiler)[i mean we didnt even get to find out about her next baby and what she had ;) (hide spoiler)]

[Amanda]

Cheryl wrote: "Also, just a question- did anyone else feel like the ending was just a tad abrupt? [spoilers removed]"

I agree!

[Beth]

I do agree about the ending - I wanted a little bit more...mostly because I just wanted more in general, but also because I like closure, haha ;)

[Maria]

Tanx, I was wondering the same things! I think her father meant Red Shirt in that letter, but I would have loved to know it for sure. About Jemima, she was terribly jealous of Morrow, so despite her marriage I guess she ended up a more spiteful person :)

I agree, Cheryl. I wanted to know something more, too. But it was lovely all the same! ;)

[Staci, Book Awards Specialist]

Just finished this one. I certainly enjoyed it, but as someone else said, I didn't LOVE it. I enjoyed Love's Reckoning much more. Laura Frantz is definitely an author I'll continue to read.

Like others have said, it would have been good to hear more about what became of Jemima. Lizzy too.

[Caitlyn]

Cheryl wrote: "Also, just a question- did anyone else feel like the ending was just a tad abrupt? [spoilers removed]"

I agree as well!

[Caitlyn]

Some more closure on all accounts would have been nice, but personally I didn't really find myself caring about what happened to Jemima, probably because I disliked her so much! LOL :)

[Caitlyn]

It's interesting because I had previously tried reading The Frontiersman's Daughter, and I'm not sure why but I just couldn't seem to get into it. But this one was just the opposite, I was sucked in on the first page and I loved every bit of it!

(view spoiler)[I loved the romance in this book! So many scenes just made my heart melt, the first ones that come to mind are the scene where Red Shirt struggles with using silverware out of respect to Morrow, the scene in the barn when Morrow realizes she loves him, Red Shirt's proposal, oh and the scene where Morrow tells Red Shirt she's pregnant was oh so sweet! When McKie called Robbie up (Thus preventing the wedding)For some reason this thought kept going through my head "Robbie's going to get killed" so I'm sure you can imagine how shocked I was when I found out what happened, I was just curious if anyone else kinda saw that coming? (hide spoiler)]

[Rachel]

I'm hoping to start this one tonight! All of your comments are intriguing me.

[Maria]

Caitlyn, the scenes you mentioned are my favourites too! Also, I loved the moment when Morrow and Red Shirt meet for the first time :) To answer your question... (view spoiler)[I definitely did see that coming! It reminded me of a similar thing I've seen in a movie (I don't know if it really happened, though). Have you seen "The man in the iron mask" with Leonardo Di Caprio? In that movie Louis XIV sends off to war a young man to have more chances to conquer his fiancée. Of course, he dies and the King gets the girl! Fortunately, Morrow was luckiest! ;) So I felt something very bad would happen to poor Robbie (although I didn't like him that much). I knew he wouldn't go back to Morrow. (hide spoiler)]

[Loraine]

Caitlyn wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "Also, just a question- did anyone else feel like the ending was just a tad abrupt? [spoilers removed]"

I agree as well!"

Yes I felt the ending was definitely abrupt and sort of like OK I have finished the correct # of pages so let's wind it up.

[Beth]

Caitlyn wrote: "It's interesting because I had previously tried reading The Frontiersman's Daughter, and I'm not sure why but I just couldn't seem to get into it. But this one was just the opposite, I was sucked i..."

I'm with you, Caitlyn. The niggling complaints I had were not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the story. I loved this book :)

I will say that I feel like Laura has definitely honed her craft with Love's Reckoning and Love's Awakening. They are cleaner than TFD and CML - not content-wise, but writing-wise, I mean.

[Caitlyn]

Maria wrote: "Caitlyn, the scenes you mentioned are my favourites too! Also, I loved the moment when Morrow and Red Shirt meet for the first time :) To answer your question... [spoilers removed]"

I haven't seen that movie! Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I will be sure to look into it! :)

[Caitlyn]

Beth wrote: "Caitlyn wrote: "It's interesting because I had previously tried reading The Frontiersman's Daughter, and I'm not sure why but I just couldn't seem to get into it. But this one was just the opposite..."

:) I have Love's Reckoning, it's been sitting in my TBR pile for far too long! But I'm hoping to finally get to it this month or next!

[Caitlyn]

(view spoiler)[Personally, I found myself being a tad bit annoyed with Morrow for taking so long to figure out that Louis was really Jess, I mean I understand that she had a lot of other things on her mind but still. I knew he was Jess pretty much from the first time he was mentioned! :) I loved how Jess was there when Red Shirt's wedding ring was stolen and how he gave it back to Morrow. It was also really cool how he knew that she was his sister because of her ring.
It was interesting how Surrounded by the Enemy's past was written because on some level I think a part of my mind always sort of thought he was involved directly with the murders of Morrow's mother and sister, but a bigger part of my brain didn't really believe that he was. So I guess what I'm saying is that even though I kinda already knew it, it was still surprising to actually have it confirmed. If that makes sense! :) (hide spoiler)]

[Rachel]

I ended up reading nearly 1/4 of this book last night, when I only intended to read a couple of chapters. Oops ;) I read Love's Reckoning last year and so far I feel like both books dealt with some really sad, tragic situations, but somehow this one doesn't feel quite so bleak.

Also, I could be wrong, but is this book set in the same time period as The Messenger by Siri Mitchell? When Morrow talks about her time in Philadelphia and her experiences with the British soldiers, a few events and names seemed incredibly familiar. It's a fascinating period of history, either way.

[Ruth]

Still working my way through (had to slow down thanks to end of semester stuff) so I'm holding off on saying too much about my thoughts since a lot of them are pretty dependent on how things are handled through the end. I found myself not really caring much about Jemima either, and I'm kinda thinking it's for about the same reason it was hard to care about a similar character type in the last Christian romance I read. I felt like both characters were too vilified, with little depth or motivation to them beyond "I hate the Irish" or "I'm jealous of pretty girls with nice dresses," making it kinda hard to really care much what happened to them once they're served their role. (I cared a little more for Morrow's other friend, but I feel like she barely even shows up!) I kinda wish we'd spent more time getting to know the two women a little better to get to know a little more about them and maybe care a little more about what ends up happening to them.

[Maria]

Caitlyn wrote: "Maria wrote: "Caitlyn, the scenes you mentioned are my favourites too! Also, I loved the moment when Morrow and Red Shirt meet for the first time :) To answer your question... [spoilers removed]"

..."

You're welcome!
(view spoiler)[I agree about the encounter between Jess and Morrow :) I personally have understood he was her brother when she was captured by Colonel Clark's men and the author wrote that there was a man who kept staring at her and seemed familiar to Morrow. On the other hand, I didn't imagine Surrounded by the Enemy was the one who killed Morrow's mother and sister! I was shocked! (hide spoiler)]

[Natalie]

@Cheryl: I thought the typical protocol for choosing the titles for the Additional Group Reads wasd that they have only been out six months or less, but I'm pretty that has been out way longer than that. Can you clarify why it was still eligible after such a huge gap between the release date and the book discussion itself?

[Cheryl]

Natalie, while it is true that the additional group reads are traditionally on the "newer side" several of the members have had difficulty accessing the newer titles from their library and so a way that I have tried to help that is to also include in the list a title that has recently come out as a "kindle freebie". I just want to give as many folks as possible an opportunity to participate in this group read :). So yes, technically it's an older title, but it is a "New kindle freebie" if that makes sense. And I'm sure you would agree that not everyone has read the older titles so it gives us chance to circle back and read an oldie but a goodie! Hope that answers your question :) I really enjoyed this book- great read!

[Rachel]

I'm nearly 3/4 of the way through this book and absolutely loving it! The love story is incredibly romantic, even if it isn't the most traditional, since the hero and heroine spend large sections of time apart and have so many stumbling blocks between them. Any recommendations for other authors who write a similar style of romance to Laura Frantz?

[Cheryl]

I thought the same exact thing Rachel- it was very romantic! Ha! I tend to like Jody Hedlund's as well, but I think you've read her. Laura Frantz just knows how to really bring the romance into the moment. I enjoyed it as well. Let mw know what you think when you finish it!

[Rachel]

I've only read a couple of Jody's, but that's a good comparison! I absolutely adored the romance in Rebellious Heart. That was one of my favourite reads for 2013.

[Beth]

Rachel wrote: "I'm nearly 3/4 of the way through this book and absolutely loving it! The love story is incredibly romantic, even if it isn't the most traditional, since the hero and heroine spend large sections o..."

Rachel, I would compare Lori Benton to Laura Frantz. I haven't read her first novel, but I did read her most recent release The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn, and it is a new favorite.

[Natalie]

@Cheryl: Thanks for clarifying,. I will try to read on my Kindle sometime before you archive this discussion. I have enjoyed the two books I've read so far by this author.

[Natalie]

@Cheryl: Thanks for clarifying,. I will try to read on my Kindle sometime before you archive this discussion. I have never read this author, but I'm always anxious to try new ones I might like. Would anyone compare Frantz's writing style to Sarah E Ladd. Sarah Sundin, Kim Vogel Sawyer or Jen Turano? I am askign this because I haven't read at the moment.