Book Review

My book reveiw this time is Arms of Love by Kelly Long. This book was supplied to me by Thomas Nelson Publishing Company to read and write a review. This book is an Amish setting during the Revolutionary War time. The book starts with plenty of action. Lena's father has been arrested because he would not provide his last cow to the revoluntionists. At that time if a person was arrested, he was not provided food and water unless the family or friends provided it for him. Lena's mother is pregnant ready to deliver the baby. Lena is probably 17-18 years old. There is a brother 11 years old and younger sister. The mother thinks she will have a difficult delivery. The delivery is in the very first of the book and the mother dies. Lena is too inexperienced that she does not know what to do for her mother. Lena has a boyfriend, who has been providing money for her father in jail. During that time when someone died they were not embalmed, so the funeral had to take place soonafter the death. . Then too, the baby lived so Lena needed a wet nurse for her.
The mother has told the boyfriend not to marry Lena unless he made some changes in his life. His father was a very physical man, beating his son unmercifully at times. I think Lena's mother did not want her daughter or grandchildren raised in that kind of environment.
The boyfriend arranges for the burial, then goes to town and finds a woman who had just had a baby and her house had burned down. Her husband had been killed in the war, so she really needed a place to live. He brings her to within 1/4 mile of Lena's house and lets her walk in the rest of the way, so it would not look like he had found her. She comes in and takes over and helps Lena with the children and especially the two babies.
The story involves the two families: Lena's family and her boyfriend's family. As the plot goes along the problems with the members of the family are worked out.
This is a good book. The grammatical markings are strange. For instance, the quotation marks are not correct and you have to wonder at the beginning of the book who is saying what, or if anyone is saying it. But then you get used to the incorrectness of them and you are not puzzled all the time.