Hardcover
Publisher: Tyndale (2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0739440012
ISBN-13: 978-0739440018

Re-released as a paperback:
Paperback: 300 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers; Reprint edition (January 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0842360999
ISBN-13: 978-0842360999

From the inside cover:

Katie Jones is committed to fighting for the cause of women’s suffrage. She has no time for romance, especially not with her best friend Ben Rafferty. But when Katie’s column in Ben’s newspaper, The Homestead Herald, stirs things up, sparks begin to fly. Ben is set on winning Katie over, but Katie is just as determined to stay true to her 1916 feminist ideals. With such strong obstacles in the way, their relationship can’t possibly progress. Unless somehow love finds a way…

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I purchased this book from Crossings a few years ago, but just got around to reading it. I loved this book! The romance was heartwarming, tender, and oh, so good! Not too long ago, I was talking about building believable characters. Robin Lee Hatcher has built a believable character when she created Katie Jones. Katie is educated, smart, determined, and stubborn. She is passionate about the Women’s Suffrage Movement, and feels that God has called her to make a huge difference by helping to provide equal rights for women.

However, she feels that she should not get married in order to properly heed this call. Her desire to not marry, in order to heed her calling provides a perfect conflict for a romance novel.

Ben Rafferty falls in love with Katie when she breezes back into town, demanding he allow her to have a weekly column in his newspaper. All he wants is to see Katie happy, but he finds himself sacrificing his own dreams in order to provide Katie with the happiness that she thinks she wants. Katie soon discovers that she’s unsure of what she wants in order to be happy. Although she fiercly believes in the movement, she’s unsure if this is what God has called her to do.

I was so into this book that it almost made me want to go out and read more about Susan B. Anthony and the Woman’s Suffrage Movement on my own. The book is so good and well-written that I think it could prove to be a useful tool in the classroom when a history class studies women’s suffrage.

Also, this was kind of strange. In the version I was reading from Crossings, Katie is described in the book as having black hair. However, the cover shows her hair as more of a light brown. Since she looks this way on the cover, the mental image I had of Katie in my mind while reading the story was of Kate Winslet (Rose) in the movie Titanic. I don’t think Kate Winslet’s hair was light brown? I think it was red, however, I pictured Kate Winslet with light brown hair whenver I read about Katie Jones. It appears that the cover was fixed for the re-released paperback version. As you can see above, the cover for the paperback version has Katie with dark hair.

I love Robin Lee Hatcher’s books and below, I’ve listed a few others that I’ve read and enjoyed. I can’t give full-blown summaries as I’ve done for the one above since I read them so long ago. However, I just want to recommend these titles. These titles are also good examples to read if you’re trying to break into the Christian romance market with your own work:

Speak To Me Of Love
ISBN: 0842360980
Pub. Date: August 2003

The Forgiving Hour
Series: Heartquest Series
Paperback
ISBN: 1578562775
Pub. Date: February 1999

There are two others I’ve read (maybe more) but the titles escape me. I scrolled through amazon, but there are a lot of titles under her name, too many for me to sort through with my limited time! If memory serves me correctly, I read one of her novels in the Coming To America series! Also I read another that I believe took place on a sheep farm and it’s a historical? I also recall the hero had served time for a crime he did not commit? If anybody can tell me the title of the sheep farm book, let me know, and I’ll gladly add them to this blog entry.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com