Reviewer Conny Withay:Operating her own business in office management since 1991, Conny is an avid reader and volunteers with the elderly playing her designed The Write Word Game. A cum laude graduate with a degree in art living in the Pacific Northwest, she is married with two sons, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren.
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Author: Karen Halvorsen Schreck
Publisher: Howard
Books
ISBN: 978-1-4767-9483-9
“Go, she said, Charlie
said, God said, I said. And now here I am, going,” Ruth declares in
Karen Halvorsen Schreck’s novel, Broken Ground.
At
three hundred and thirty-six pages, this paperback targets those who
like Christian historical fiction with romance. With only one swear
word and topics of sexual and physical abuse as well as
discrimination, it would not be appropriate for immature readers.
Acknowledgments and an advertisement for another novel by the author
are at the end.
In this story written in first person and set
in the 1930s, twenty-one-year-old Ruth Warren is forced to return to
her parents’ home after her husband of three months is killed in an
accident. Although full of grief and sadness, she accepts a
scholarship to go to college in Southern California to become a
teacher.
When she is forced to stop her schooling, she learns
more regarding the life of Mexican migrants who try to survive in
America and their tribulations. With Thomas Everly’s help,
knowledge, and guidance, she finds her calling.
Using the backdrop of
farming, workers’ rights, and repatriation during the period, the
book shows how frustrating and challenging migrants dealt living in
America during the era. I like how the author blended in the culture,
lifestyle, and holistic cures into the story.
With Ruth having
experienced her husband’s death and a frightful college incident,
the tale becomes a little stifled regarding the relationship between
the two protagonists.
With a doctorate in English and
creative writing, Schreck has written four novels. She and her family
live in Illinois.
I wish the book had a more of a romantic
tone when it came to Ruth and Thomas, especially at the end.
If
you like historical fiction that explains repatriation, illegal
aliens, and Mexican traditions in America, this may be a nice choice.
Thanks to Howard Books and Bookpleasures for this book to read and review.