Color Beyond Better

Color Beyond Better

About the Book

Book: Aiming for Love
Author: Mary Connealy
Genre: Christian Historical Romance
Release Date: October 2, 2019

Josephine Nordegren is one of three sisters who grew up nearly wild in southwestern Colorado. She has the archery skills of Robin Hood and the curiosity of the Little Mermaid, fascinated by but locked away from the forbidden outside world–a world she’s been raised to believe killed her parents. When David Warden, a rancher, brings in a herd much too close to the girls’ secret home, her older sister is especially frightened, but Jo is too interested to stay away.

 David’s parents follow soon on his heels, escaping bandits at their ranch. But his father is wounded and needs shelter. Josephine and her sisters have the only cabin on the mountain. Do they risk stepping into the world to help those in need? Or do they remain separated but safe in the peaks of Hope Mountain?

Click here to get your copy!  

My Review: 

Aiming for Love” will capture your heart. From the first page to the last it will grab you and take you on an wonderful adventure all over Hope Mountain in Colorado.

You will meet some amazing young women whose lifestyle is quite unusual. They are the three Nordegren sisters Josephine, Ilsa, and Ursula who have been living alone on Hope Mountain for years.
They are self sustaining and have never been off the mountain, they do not know anything about the outside world, and are fearful of people.  Their greatest fears are realized with the unexpected arrival of men and cows on the mountain.  Josephine is an expert with the bow and arrow and it is her curiosity that causes this story to unfold into a dramatic, but sweet romantic tale that only God could have orchestrated.

Throughout the story Mary Connely has weaved threads of love, faith, hope, fear, frustration and of course bits of humor. All these come together to create a novel that will leave you smiling, yet yearning for more.

This is an easy read, a page turner that you will find hard to put down. Once finished you will want to go back and re-read it because you won’t want to let the characters leave your mind. And, you will anxiously wait for book two to answer several questions that will be floating around in your head.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Western/Cowboy Romance novels. I was gifted this book by Celebrate Lit, but was not expected to give a favorable review. All comments are my own.

–Leona J. Atkinson

About the Author

Mary Connealy writes “romantic comedies with cowboys” and is celebrated for her fun, zany, action-packed style. She has more than half a million books in print. She is the author of the popular series Wild at Heart, Kincaid Brides, Trouble in Texas, Lassoed in Texas, Sophie’s Daughters, and many other books. Mary lives on a ranch in eastern Nebraska with her very own romantic cowboy hero. Learn more at www.maryconnealy.com

 

More from Mary

What it would do to someone to run wild from nearly their earliest memory? What if three young girls had the basic skills to survive a rugged life but no adults to guide them? Would they grow up to be a completely odd and untamed version of themselves, or the truest, in some ways most honest version? I wanted to explore that idea: wild children, tough young women, afraid of the invading world, but lonely, too. So I created the plot for my Brides of Hope Mountain series by mixing the three little girls who’d grown up wild on the top of a mountain with some fairy tale ideas. Book one, Aiming for Love, is Josephine Nordegren’s story. I had this vision of Ariel the mermaid seeing a man for the first time when strangers invade the high valley she lives in with only her two sisters. Curiosity is her besetting sin, or so she’s always been told. She has wilderness skills, mainly in the form of owning a bow and arrow and understanding wild animals, but for the first time, she is drawn to a man. Jo needs to be tamed, or Dave, the man she can’t stop watching from in the woods, needs to learn the ways of the wild, because they’re out of place in each other’s worlds.

Blog Stops

Among the Reads, October 25

Moments With Mercy, October 25

Bigreadersite , October 25

Emily Yager, October  25

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, October 26

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, October 26

Books, Life, and Christ, October 26

Quiet Workings, October 26

D’S QUILTS & BOOKS, October 27

For Him and My Family, October 27

Stories By Gina, October 27

Jeanette’s Thoughts, October 27

Older & Smarter?, October 28

Betti Mace, October 28

Wishful Endings, October 28

The Becca Files, October 29

Adventures of a Travelers Wife, October 29

Mary Hake, October 29

Mamma Loves Books, October 29

A Baker’s Perspective, October 30

Stephanie’s Life of Determination, October 30

Britt Reads Fiction, October 30

For The Love of Books, October 30

Hallie Reads, October 31

Connect in Fiction, October 31

Christian Bookshelf Reviews, October 31

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess , November 1

To Everything There Is A Season, November 1

Daysong Reflections, November 1

Splashes of Joy, November 1

Moments, November 2

Simple Harvest Reads, November 2

Batya’s Bits, November 2

She Lives To Read, November 2

EmpowerMoms, November 3

Seasons of Opportunities, November 3

Remembrancy, November 3

Blessed & Bookish, November 4

For the Love of Literature, November 4

Through the Fire Blogs, November 4

Tell Tale Book Reviews, November 4

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, November 5

Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, November 5

Locks, Hooks and Books, November 5

Pause for Tales , November 5

Texas Book-aholic, November 6

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, November 6

janicesbookreviews, November 6

A Reader’s Brain, November 7

Inklings and notions , November 7

Leona J. Atkinson-The-Book-Boutique, November 7

Lukewarm Tea, November 7

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Mary is giving away a grand prize package of a $20 Amazon gift card, a copy of Aiming for Love, and a copy of Fairy Tales from Around the World!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/ed95/aiming-for-love-celebration-tour-giveaway

Check Out My Newly Designed Website at: https://leonajatkinson.com

54 Spiritual Blessings In Christ

My Review of "Stubborn Twig" by Lauren Kessler

Japanese in America 1887—1945

I do feel that in the book Stubborn Twig author Lauren Kessler does present both sides of the internment issue. She does show that there was a longtime history in America of racism and exclusionary policies towards Asians even before the Japanese came to our country, but she also shows how this racism greatly increased after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans in America never really lived without some sort of racial prejudice, whether it was directed at them by neighbors or the government, hostility was something they dealt with almost daily. Actually, Asians in America were never really welcomed.
The first Asians to come to America were the Chinese.
In the 1850’s Chinese came to America to work in the gold mines and on the railroads. In 1868 The Burlingame Treaty was established which showed friendly relations between the US and China and encouraged Chinese immigration, but limited naturalization for the Chinese. Over the years as more and more Chinese came to America white sentiment against them grew and in 1882 the US enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act caused a problem as the railroads needed laborers and there were no longer any Chinese available to work, so in 1887 Japanese men began to emigrate to the US to work on the railroads incited by hyped up ads filled with amazing opportunities in America promising instant riches and great rewards to those who came to work.
This hyperbole, coupled with the problems many of them were facing in Japan with low wages and difficulties caused by the Meiji government who was taxing farmer’s land and enacting policies that reduced the price of their crops, caused many Japanese men to consider leaving Japan for America when the American railroad agents came recruiting them to work as railroad laborers promising a dollar a day in wages.
By 1907 about 40% of Oregon’s total railroad labor force was made up of Japanese men. These Japanese workers helped build the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Oregon Short Line railroads in Oregon, plus many others in the Columbia River Basin.

Many Japanese Railroad laborers in the US---1900’s
In 1902 Masno Yasui came to America and he worked on the railroads until 1908 when he went to Hood River.
In Hood River, Masno and his brother, Renichi, opened a store. Masno also worked in an apple orchard and a bank as a janitor, eventually he became involved in many other enterprising activities in the community. Masno was always alert, always looking for a new opportunity. Masno spoke and wrote English very well so he was an asset to other Japanese who could not, and quickly became a go between helping them to succeed in their life in America. He found he was also valuable to the white business owners as well, working as a recruiter for their businesses that needed laborers. He soon became a community leader in Hood River. Masno also began buying land for himself and this got him into real estate, and soon he was buying land to resell or lease to other Japanese.
Masno and his fellow Japanese were very industrious and successful, and soon were out performing the white workers in their neighborhoods. This began to be a cause for concern by many on the West Coast. Even though Masno was, for the most part, well liked in his community, there were some who opposed him and all Japanese, and often Masno and his family were reminded that they were not, and never would be, “true Americans”. Government laws and policies were also a reminder. The Naturalization Act of 1790 clearly stated that Asians were barred from 500 jobs and could never become citizens. Yet the Japanese still came to America.
The growing population of Japanese soon became a concern across the country.
The Immigration Act of 1924 limited further Japanese immigration and in 1925 legal restrictions were put into place that barred Japanese from owning land. Surely there was much racial bigotry going on both politically and in the media.

Through all of this Masno and his family continued to work hard and tried to live peacefully in the land they had come to love. Masno spoke to a group of fellow Methodists in 1925 saying: “ We cannot be Americans legally, but we are 100 percent American at heart in every way.”
Then, on December 7, 1941 everything changed!
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor caused an even greater anti-Japanese sentiment to grow quickly in America and soon Anti-Japanese paranoia became widespread throughout America. Japanese Americans were feared as a security risk and in February 1942 President Roosevelt signed an executive order for the relocation of all Americans of Japanese ancestry to concentration camps in the interior of the United States. Even though there was no evidence to convict them of any crimes against the US, still they were held in the camps until 1945, after the end of WW2.

Masuo spent the whole war interned at different camps, charged with being a spy which was never proven. No evidence was ever found to prove that any of the Japanese internees were guilty of espionage. Masuo and his wife never returned to Hood River or his many properties as they were all sold off during his internment to pay loans and taxes. Even after WW2 was over Masuo and all Japanese were treated with fear and prejudice.
Stubborn Twig vividly portrayed the life of a people who lived " ine both versions of America: the light and the shadow. The Country that provides opportunity and then works overtime to prevent some people from gaining access to it."

--Leona J. Atkinson

Sources:
1868 Burlingame Treaty
https://www.us-immigration.com/asian-...
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
https://www.us-immigration.com/asian-...
Japanese men leave Japan--Stubborn Twig Chapter 1 pages 7-8
Japanese Americans in the Columbia River Basin
First Arrivals and Their Labors
http://archive.vancouver.wsu.edu/crbe...
The Immigration Act of 1924-- https://www.us-immigration.com/asian-...
Masno quote: Stubborn Twig Chapter 5 page 68
Japanese-American Internment--http://www.ushistory.org/us/51e.asp
Quote: Lauren Kessler Stubborn Twig Preface page xiv