Heart on the Line

Back Cover

When danger arrives, it's more than just her heart on the line...

Grace Mallory is tired of hiding.  She hungers for a normal life, perhaps even a suitor like two of her friends in Harper's Station have found.  But when the man she believes responsible for her father's death discovers her whereabouts, survival takes priority.

Amos Bledsoe prefers bicycles to horses and private conversations over the telegraph wire to social gatherings with young ladies who see him as nothing more than an oddity.  His fellow telegrapher, the mysterious Miss G, has been the ideal companion.  For months, their friendship - dare he believe, courtship? - over the wire has fed his hope that he has finally found the woman God intends for him.  However, when he intercepts an ominous message and discovers her life is in peril, Amos must shed the cocoon of his quiet nature to become the hero Grace requires.

Review

Heart on the Line is a lighthearted read, with very tongue-in-cheek similarities to the modern world of online dating.  But in the case of Grace and Amos, the computer has been traded for a telegraph machine and emails for dots and dashes.  As I myself have been one of the many who have braved the scary realm of online dating, I found the inferences (whether intended or not) rather amusing in the "I totally understand" way - right down to the main worry of whether the person you come to know "online" is who they say they are in real life.  Their personality could be completely different in person - and are they really the age they say they are??

Online dating similarities aside, the characters of Grace and Amos were just wonderful.  Grace has pluck, determination, cleverness, and is a very classy lady.  Amos is incredibly endearing with his chivalry and protective nature towards Grace, preferring to use his wits rather than his fists in tense situations.  They were the perfect couple to navigate the dangerous scenarios that are encountered in the book. 

I greatly enjoyed returning to Karen's series, "Ladies of Harper's Station".  I wasn't even a chapter in when I paused my reading and came to the realization that it is novels like Heart on the Line that fostered my passion for reading wonderful fiction.  This novel had all the right elements with spot-on characters held together by some terrific writing.  I really, really cannot wait for the next instalment!!

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.