Today, I am VERY excited to review the debut release, The Hesitant Heiress, by my writing friend Dawn Crandall. I met Dawn for the first time at my very first ACFW conference in 2011. We were roommates. I recall reading the first couple of pages of her manuscript in our hotel room, and my jaw dropped. This gal had a unique voice, and I knew she was going to be published one day. Well…enough of my gushing. Here goes a summary followed by my review.
Summary:
After being unjustly expelled from the Boston Conservatory of Music, Amaryllis Brigham sees her dreams of founding a music academy in her hometown of Seattle, Washington, disappearing before her very eyes. Now, the only way to achieve her goal comes with high stakes for someone set on avoiding men as much as possible: Marry within the year to inherit the immense fortune of her estranged grandmother. Amaryllis reluctantly moves in to her aunt’s Boston home and rubs shoulders with fashionable society. Despite her own misgivings, she soon finds herself quickly falling in love with the most unlikely of men, Nathan Everstone, the envy of every eligible female, whose father has haunted her dreams for the decade following her mother’s tragic death. However, Nathan turns out to be much more than he seems…and everything she never knew she wanted. But can she ever really trust an Everstone man?
My Review:
Amaryllis Brigham is determined to go against the grain of society and forge her own path in the world. Crandall did a great job of writing Amaryllis as a woman of her time while making her uniquely witty at times. I felt emotionally involved in this story as Amaryllis fought her feelings for Nathan Everstone. Crandall’s writing style plucked my heartstrings and kept me turning the pages. She does an excellent job at writing in first person POV. She writes in such a way that made me fully absorbed in the story. This is a fresh and unique story, and I can’t wait to read book 2!!
About Dawn:
A graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble, Dawn Crandall didn’t begin writing until 2010 when her husband found out about her long-buried dream of writing a book. Without a doubt about someday becoming published, he let her quit her job in 2010 in order to focus on writing The Hesitant Heiress. It didn’t take encouraged long to realize that writing books was what she was made to do. Dawn is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary.
Thank you for reviewing The Hesitant Heiress, Preslaysa! I remember you sitting on the bed looking at my first few chapters back then! I had no idea you were thinking such wonderful things about it! Remember how nervous and unsure I was about going to my agent appointments??? I’m so glad you guys were so encouraging to me about not cancelling! 😀
Yes, those were my true thoughts, Dawn!! And I’m glad you didn’t cancel those agent appointments too 🙂
I too am so looking forward to book two. Thanks for the review! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Rachael!!
How fun to have met as roommates at the conference! Thanks for sharing your review with us!
It was very cool!! Thanks for stopping by, Heidi!
Yeah, we didn’t know each other… but I don’t think any of us really knew ANYONE that year! Crazy things happen when God wants to get you somewhere! And He really wanted to have the three of us at that ACFW conference. 😀
How interesting that you were at the same conference & look how God has blessed! Love the theme of this book 🙂
Thank you, Deanna! Preslaysa and I have definitely both been blessed abundantly since that 2011 conference! She was pregnant at our first conference, and I was pregnant at last years! 🙂 Babies and Books!! I’m sure Preslaysa will be published soon enough!!! She’s an amazing writer as well!!!! 😀
All of my Christian book reader friends have been talking about Dawn Crandall’s book!
I would love to win a copy of it! 🙂
So looking forward to reading this novel…