Author: Grace Livingston Hill
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-62029-391-1

“You needn’t worry about me, really,” she laughed. “I’m perfectly all safe, and you know God is in New York, too. ‘The Bible says He is.’” Farley explains in Grace Livingston Hill’s novel, Ladybird.

At two hundred and fifty-one pages, this paperback book is targeted toward readers who enjoy light romance, relationships, and learning about the West and New York in the early nineteen hundreds. With no profanity but suggestions of physical and sexual abuse, alcoholism, and violence, mature readers would enjoy its contents with quotes from the King James Version of the Bible. 

Born in the nineteenth century, Grace Livingston Hill wrote over one hundred novels and was considered the pioneer of Christian romance. In reading her tomes now being republished, the reader is instantly transported back in time with descriptive, expressive, and detailed scenes.

In this tale, coming-of-age Fraley MacPherson is a sheltered young girl living in the remote mountainous terrain of the West with a band of criminals. After her father has supposedly fallen to his death five months ago and her frail mother dies, she must flee drunken, angry men who want to own and possess her for cooking, cleaning, and ulterior evil motives.

As she escapes out the window of the family’s meager cabin, she feels hunted by both man and beast, trying to survive. Having learned to read and write, her prized possession is her mother’s worn Bible along with tattered clothing and fifteen dollars to her name.

While fleeing, she meets a kind woman and her family that she shares a memorized Bible story with along with George Seagrave, a man from New York who decided to help a sickly man preach to his flock out West. Knowing nothing about God, Jesus, or preaching, Seagrave is inspired by this fresh, endearing, and altruistic young lady.

When Seagrave helps MacPherson get on a train to New York so she can find her unknown relatives, the girl is enamored by her surroundings, especially when she meets Violet Wentworth who showers her with gifts, clothing, and an opulent life style.

Rooted in her Biblical upbringing, the young girl tries to stay obedient to the Word as she affects those she befriends. Aware of her past and the men that want to track her down, she tries to remain honest and true to herself.

Author Hill writes with such clarity and dimension that the reader is instantly caught up in the storyline, racing to the ending to find out if Ladybird sticks with her values or succumbs the worldly ways that test her.

This book was furnished by Barbour Publishing, Inc. in lieu of an unbiased review.

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