| From RomanceJunkies.com Historical
1914, Heart Junction, South Dakota
Marigold Mahoney is positive she’ll never be able to tolerate living in Heart Junction. Electricity and indoor plumbing are amenities she’d been accustomed to in her father’s home in Minneapolis. She doesn’t understand why her father would send her to such a substandard area to serve as a teacher. Not even the gorgeous man hired to chauffeur her about can be enough to change her mind, or so she thinks.
Grit Truman is a sharecropper who’s been saving towards the day he can purchase the house and land he’s been renting. He accepted Mari’s father’s offer of servicing the car he’s provided and seeing to Mari’s safety because he needs the extra income but he hadn’t expected to be so captivated by the spoiled young woman.
Mari’s ready to pack up and head back to Minneapolis despite her commitment to the school board. Why should she have to go without the creature comforts like running water, electricity, servants, and all her beaus and friends? The loneliness and lack of amenities are more than she can take. Grit isn’t about to let her leave so easily and defies convention to take her to his home and show her how he’s modernized his home and promises to do the same with her teacher’s quarters as soon as harvest time is over. Mari isn’t at all pleased with having to wait but Grit promises to bring her out to his place whenever she wishes so she can indulge in the creature comforts.
Mari can’t see past her own wants and expectations to take into consideration anyone else’s needs. She struggles to find a place for herself amongst the citizens of the town but with the mindset that socializing with ‘lower class’ people isn’t acceptable she’s destined to remain lonely. Grit’s friendship and calm acceptance of her lofty attitude proves to be exactly what she needs to find her footing in unfamiliar surroundings. What neither of them is prepared to accept is the emotional attachment they’re developing for each other. He’s not willing to even consider courting her until he’s financially able to support her – and she’s not about to fall in love with a man she considers to be ‘beneath her.’ Together they’re the perfect couple - if only they could see it.
MARI’S MIRACLE is the third book in Fran Shaff’s HEART JUNCTION series. This story captures the reader’s heart and imagination as you delve into these characters lives. Mari’s transformation from spoiled socialite to independent young woman had me laughing, crying, and wanting to smack some sense into her. Grit is the polar opposite of Mari and his reactions to her high handed mannerisms are simply perfect. Some of my favorite scenes involve the first lady of Heart Junction, Antigone Verseth. She’s so sanctimonious that she grated on my nerves just reading about her. I’ve developed a real fondness for HEART JUNCTION and the various characters who live there. I’ll definitely be picking up copies of the rest of the books in this series and revisiting there in the near future.
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