August 22, 2016
Snelling (Streams of Mercy) completes her Song of Blessing series with a fourth book following the day-to-day activities of the inhabitants of Blessing, N.D., a town filled with Norwegian immigrants, including the members of the Bjorkund family. In this entry, Snelling focuses heavily on Deborah MacCallister, a supervising nurse at the local hospital who laments being single in a town where “All the others have married... some even twice.” Toby Valders periodically takes notice of Deborah, stoking her hopes, but he usually seems oblivious to her overtures. The women of Blessing take on the mission of getting Deborah and Toby married by December, but Toby continues his indifference despite their best efforts at matchmaking. Plodding along at a slow pace, Snelling finds a way to invoke conflict when an immediate attraction develops between Deborah and the new teacher at the school for the deaf. Though this book works as a standalone, the vast array of characters and the multiple references to their backstories may be confusing to those who have not read any of Snelling’s previous 20 books about the Bjorklunds. Agent: Wendy Lawton, Books & Such