About the Book:
In the small Puritan community of Stoneybrooke, Massachusetts, Susannah Phillips stands out both for her character and beauty. She wants only a simple life but soon finds herself pursued by the town's wealthiest bachelor and by a roguish military captain sent to protect them. One is not what he seems and one is more than he seems.
In trying to discover true love's path, Susannah is helped by the most unlikely of allies, a wounded woman who lives invisible and ignored in their town. As the depth, passion, and sacrifice of love is revealed to Susannah, she begins to question the rules and regulations of her childhood faith. In a community where grace is unknown, what price will she pay for embracing love?
If you would like to read the first chapter of Love's Pursuit, go HERE.
My Review:
One of my all time favorite books is Geraldine Brook's Year of Wonders. Siri Mitchell's Love's Pursuit comes close. Both are tragic and horrifying in their raw honesty. Both are beautiful in description and detail, in character, and in ability to transport the reader to a vastly different time and place.
Mitchell has earned her spot in a short list of authors that I'm guaranteed to want to read regardless of the title or subject matter. And Love's Pursuit is not a book I'd pick up based on the title or the cover. A romance this is not, love story, yes. But as we all know a love story is not guaranteed a clean and happily-ever-after ending. Some reviewers have struggled with the back and forth first person point of view and the slower pace. The novel is literary fiction, meant to be absorbed, and if you expect slow going you will probably have less struggle.
The aspects of faith are woven seamlessly into the struggle of the characters' lives. But be warned that the horror of the hardships and brokenness of some characters could be troublesome for sensitive readers. The details of the Puritan life were fascinating. Mitchell, wielding a brush of vivid and stark prose, creates a story full of abuse, sexuality and violence, and paints the lives of a people attempting to create a new Zion or a city of light on a hill, and falling far short.
