A series following the stories of three sisters traveling across the Pacific Northwest, beginning in 1847....
#1 TREASURED GRACE
Grace Martindale has known more than her share of hardship. After her parents died, raising her two younger sisters became her responsibility. A hasty marriage to a minister who is heading to the untamed West seemed like an opportunity for a fresh start, but a cholera outbreak along the wagon trail has left Grace a widow in a very precarious position.
Having learned natural remedies and midwifery from her mother, Grace seeks an opportunity to use her skills for the benefit of others. So when she and her sisters arrive at the Whitman mission in "Oregon Country," she decides to stay rather than push on. With the help of Alex Armistead, a French-American fur trapper, Grace begins to provide care for her neighbors, including some of the native populace. But not everyone welcomes her skills--or her presence--and soon Grace finds herself and those she loves in more danger than she imagined possible.
Having learned natural remedies and midwifery from her mother, Grace seeks an opportunity to use her skills for the benefit of others. So when she and her sisters arrive at the Whitman mission in "Oregon Country," she decides to stay rather than push on. With the help of Alex Armistead, a French-American fur trapper, Grace begins to provide care for her neighbors, including some of the native populace. But not everyone welcomes her skills--or her presence--and soon Grace finds herself and those she loves in more danger than she imagined possible.
** POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: This novel includes brief scenes of graphic murder and rape.
★★★1/2
After the death of her parents, Grace Flanagan is left to figure out a way to care for her two younger sisters, sixteen year old Hope and twelve year old Mercy. Knowing that she has an uncle in Oregon, Grace decides to pack up the family and head out on the Oregon Trail. Necessity, rather than any sort of love, has her married off to the Right Reverend T.S. Martindale, but before long young Grace is left a young widow. Taken in by Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife, the ladies are invited to stay with them at Whitman Mission through the winter, an offer they accept with thanks.
During her stay at the mission, Grace meets fur trapper Alex Armistead, who has a good relationship with many of the local Native Americans. When a measles outbreak tears through the area, Grace offers her knowledge and services as an herbalist / natural healer (as well as a trained midwife) to help the native people devastated by all this sickness. With Alex's help, she treats native people and settlers alike, much to the disapproval of Dr. Whitman (whom she starts to realize is actually rather racist / misogynistic). Whitman prefers women to "stay in their lane" and not tinker in his line of work. Tensions are heightened when Alex and Grace discover that the local natives have singled out Whitman to blame for the measles outbreak. When very few among the tribes show improvement, they become suspicious of him, claiming that he poisoned the medications and foods he provided them to help heal. Many believe his only motivation in working with them is the hopes of converting them to his faith. The elders talk of waging war on the settlers and having Whitman killed but Alex intervenes and calms them down. What he doesn't expect is a threat from a different group altogether.
Appreciating Grace's skill in herbal arts, many of the Native Americans turn to her for help. Though she was raised to fear them, she reluctantly agrees to offer what help she can. One of her first patients ends up being Gabriel, an elderly friend of Alex's. Grace, who doesn't particularly approve of interracial relationships at this point in her life (this topic will be touched upon again in the later books of this series), is shocked to hear Gabriel talk of having two wives over his lifetime, one a Nez Perce woman, the other Cree.
"A great many people think folks should be quartered off for one reason or another. Either because of their religion or the country they came from."
"That's true enough," Grace replied, "but the point is a good one in the sense that we are more comfortable with what we know. So if we stay in a place where people think and live as we do, then we'll get along better."
"I suppose some figure it'd be nice to have things work out that way, but for me, I like knowing and living amongst a lot of different folks. There are some mighty good people out there who are nothing at all like me."
"I'm sure that's right, but I know in the east people are disturbed by such differences. Like the color of a person's skin. Slavery has many people upset."
"It's never sat well with me for one man to own another. Seems to me that you can't be judgin' one man or woman by the color of their skin."
"I don't mean to sound so judgmental, and I don't believe that slavery of one race to another is acceptable. I was just taught that we should keep to our own kind," Grace replied.
"And we should. But that means people keepin' to people. You wouldn't go out and marry your horse, now would you?"
While Grace is away visiting a bed-bound friend, Whitman Mission is attacked / ambushed by a few renegade Cayuse natives. The neighboring tribes --- when word of the attack reaches them --- worry that they will suffer the consequences of the actions of these men, believing that white people see no difference between tribes. Most of the men at the mission are killed, women and children rounded up and held hostage for weeks on end. Tense negotiations go back and forth to try to get the hostages freed but it doesn't go well. In fact, many of the women end up being victims of sexual assault at the hands of the Cayuse, one of the victims being Grace's sister Hope. The PTSD she develops from that experience is explored further in Book 2, Beloved Hope. Horrific as the experience is, we learn the admirable sacrifice Hope makes to protect her younger sister Mercy from the same fate.
This introduction to this series has a nice little mix of everything you could want from a story like this. There's a sisterly bond that you can invest in, starting out warm and loving but still plenty of emotional challenges between the women for them to work through as they grow up and advance into established womanhood. Yes, there's all the pain and tragedy that befalls Hope, but the silver lining is all the growth that all the women pull out of the experience of helping her through her depression. By coming together as sisters, they each take away lessons that ultimately help them to also become strong wives and mothers down the road. I ended up appreciating that aspect more than the romances throughout this series, though those were fine as well, just not especially swoon-worthy throughout for me. There is a sense of coziness to these unions, as the women meet their future partners, and there's a nice man's man element to each of their characters, but it often ended up feeling more like a solid friendship that was fun to visit... rather than a romantic relationship that left me envious. Like I said, not so lastingly swoon-worthy for me. Still, I've enjoyed getting to know these sisters one by one and in this first book in particular, Grace's steely backbone, let's-get-the-job-done mentality was certainly something to be admired.
#2 BELOVED HOPE
Hope Flanagan survived the massacre at the Whitman Mission, but at terrible personal cost. Safe now in Oregon City, she lives with her sisters, Grace and Mercy, and Grace's new husband, Alex. As she spends her days tending their flock of sheep, Hope's mind and soul are slowly healing. Yet, though she was once surrounded by suitors, she has no interest in giving her heart again after the man she loved died in her arms.
Hope's precarious new peace is shattered when those responsible for the massacre are captured and put on trial. She is asked to testify against them, but she's not sure she can bear to relive the events of those horrific days. As Hope struggles to free herself from the pain of her past, Lance Kenner, an Army lieutenant, brings an unexpected ray of light into her life. But what will Lance think of her if he learns the truth behind her anguish? And what secrets lie in his past?
Hope's precarious new peace is shattered when those responsible for the massacre are captured and put on trial. She is asked to testify against them, but she's not sure she can bear to relive the events of those horrific days. As Hope struggles to free herself from the pain of her past, Lance Kenner, an Army lieutenant, brings an unexpected ray of light into her life. But what will Lance think of her if he learns the truth behind her anguish? And what secrets lie in his past?
★★★☆☆
Beloved Hope expands on the story of second Flanagan sister, Hope, and the emotional and physical trauma she continues to endure from the sexual assault she suffered in Book 1. Now nearly three years have passed and the sisters have relocated to Oregon City to live near their uncle. Older sister Grace now owns a 140 acre property with her new husband, and Hope takes up residence there, working as a sheep herder. Just as she's starting to make the first steps to put her past behind her, she's asked to testify against the Cayuse Indians responsible for orchestrating the Whitman Mission Massacre.
In the few years since her attack, Hope's heart, once light and flirty, has now noticeably (and understandably) hardened. She initially has no interest in offering testimony --- and through that, she feels, a level of acknowledgement and forgiveness --- to her attackers. Though both Hope and younger sister Mercy survived the massacre, they don't see eye to eye on the topic of the fate of the Cayuse men being brought to trial for their actions. Hope wants revenge while Mercy firmly believes in forgiveness. Gradually, circumstances lead to a shift in Hope's stance.
Army Lieutenant Lance Kenner serves as head of courtroom security at the trial. While it might not necessarily be love at first sight...of the back of Hope's head (his very first sight of her)... it's at least curious interest. A meeting between them soon takes place, where Kenner offers his friendship. Naturally, Hope is a little skittish around male attention. She doesn't promise anything much beyond the polite civility etiquette dictates, but Kenner takes what he can get. Since her attack, Hope has convinced herself that no decent man could ever overlook her body now being "unpure". Lance's brilliant reply is, "No decent man would hold that against you." Of course the more he spends time with her and gets to know her, the more he wishes for the relationship to grow, but to his credit, he has an unwavering patience that eventually pays off, convincing Hope that he is surely a man she can safely let her guard down around.
Beloved Hope addresses, from a historical perspective, the various aspects of what we often now refer to as rape culture. So many of Hope's concerns and conflicted decisions are driven by how society perceives (or at least how she imagines they perceive) her as "damaged goods", rather than the weight and blame being placed on the attacker (ie. victim shaming). There's quite the arc of emotional growth to her character, as she goes through the process of learning that, when it comes to trauma, forgiving doesn't mean forgetting, and that the purpose of forgiving is often more for the victim than the attacker. It's a means of release rather than letting your abuser have any extra power over you or your future. Through the friendship (and ultimately, kind love) of Lance Kenner, Hope begins to see that while she might partly be damaged inside, she's certainly still very much worthy of love, not only of the romantic kind, but from her sisters as well. There's a fair amount of depth to this novel, and the reader goes on quite the emotional rollercoaster with Hope as she figures things out, but it's nice to see her come back around to finding a sense of joy once again. It doesn't mean that the past doesn't still hurt on some level, but just that she's allowing herself the space to bring smiles through again. It's a beautiful thing when a trauma victim is able to come back to that place and I applaud Peterson for addressing this in a historical setting.
If you haven't read the first book, Peterson does a pretty good job of covering the highlights from that story in this one, so technically the series can be started from any book and you'll probably get the gist of whichever other books in the series you missed, but because of certain moments in the story --- for instance, a reference to a skeleton in Alex Armistead's closet (introduced in the first book) --- it's probably best to read these in order, to get the best reading experience of the series.
#3 CHERISHED MERCY
★★★☆☆
And now it's finally time for little sister Mercy to take the stage!
Mercy, the youngest of the Flanagan sisters and a survivor of the Whitman Mission Massacre, along with sister Hope, is now (years later) firmly established in her teen years and trying to move on from those horrible days. When older sister Grace gets a letter from her friends Eletta, asking for help while she moves through a difficult pregnancy, Grace can't go because she is pretty far along in pregnancy herself. She asks Mercy to go in her stead. So Mercy packs up and heads to the Browning Mission in Rogue River, where Eletta and her husband live and work as missionaries / teachers. What isn't mentioned to Mercy is the friendly plotting that went down between Grace & Eletta, the friends deciding that Mercy, getting ever closer to marrying age (though she's turned down every potential suitor in her town), might be a good match for Eletta's established bachelor brother-in-law, Adam.
Prior to Mercy getting to Browning Mission, when Adam hears about her anticipated arrival he worries that she'll be the silly, fragile, city girl type... one whose constant demands and fears will prove burdensome in Indian Territory. Eletta's husband (Adam's brother) assures him that all the Flanagan ladies are anything but. Even with the reassurance, an already naturally reserved Adam braces himself to be annoyed. But at first introduction, he is caught off-guard by Mercy's natural beauty and open, kind spirit around people. However, he's hesitant to express his growing approval of her. Whenever Mercy tries to strike up a friendship with him, she's stumped as to why the young pastor is so insistent on keeping so much distance between them.
History repeats itself somewhat when Mercy is once again caught up in escalating tensions between white soldiers and native tribes of the area. As these tensions come to a head, Mercy finds herself turning to Adam's steady nature to help keep everyone calm and safe. When Mercy bears witness to yet more tragedy, she's forced to call upon strength she didn't even know she had. The surviving families of the Rogue River area come together, and Adam, warmed by Mercy's strong, loving character, finds reason to lower the wall around his heart.
Of the three books in this series, I felt this one had one of the more interesting settings, and while the general family themes of the plot were nice, the romance aspect wasn't growing on me as much. It was a little on the flat, lukewarm side of things for much of the book, though it did get a little better on that front towards the end. The story resolution felt really dragged out and far too much emphasis was put on Adam's being 1/4 Native American and how people must hate him for it.... when everyone else around him is like "I never even noticed." Ok, yes, one guy heard about it and ruined an almost-marriage for him, but okay. You met one jerk way back in the day and now everyone must be racist? Even though you've had multiple, multiple people say, in some form or another, "Yeah, I don't hold that kind of stuff against people. Doesn't bother me in the least." But he kept bringing the conversations back around to it and I, as the reader, got a little burned out having to repeatedly be party to this conversation when it'd already been established that no one was bothered the way he was thinking they were.
For the most part it was a decent read but overall I was left a little disappointed. I was excited to finally get to know Mercy better (as she'd been more of a background character in the previous two books), but I think this ended up being my least favorite of the trilogy. Also, it felt more preachy than the two earlier novels.
FTC DISCLAIMER: Bethany House Publishers kindly provided me with complimentary copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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