Beauty for Ashes by Dorothy Love

Beauty for Ashes by Dorothy Love is a Christian historical fiction book that I received complimentary from BookSneeze.  The story of a young widow facing many obstacles including difficult family and financial situations unfolds during a turbulent time in our nation's history.  A handsome stranger to her small town catches the young widow's eye; however, the skeptical attitude of the locals and her "understanding" with a staid bookkeeper in town prevents our heroine from entering a relationship with the stranger.  Several turns-of-events proceed to change the town's attitude toward the stranger and to sever the widow's relationship with the bookkeeper.  Through a lot of heartache and turmoil, the widow and the stranger finally end up together, as expected in most romantic fiction.

I admired the spunk and non-typical attitude of the book's heroine.  She actually seemed a bit selfish and impatient at times, unlike the standard heroine of most Christian fiction romances.  Unfortunately, I didn't feel the author really brought all the pieces together well in this book.  I thought the heroine would recognize the error of her ways in some regard and improve, but only some subtle references indicated self-awareness on the main character's part.  In general, the book seemed to have several loose ends and multiple references to characters and events in a previous book, leaving me at a slight loss without having read the prequel.  Many events occurred that seemed unrelated and unnecessary or non-contributing to the main theme of Beauty for Ashes (the romance between widow and stranger).  All in all, the reader who enjoys the typical Christian romantic fiction fare may enjoy this book since that reader is not looking for complexity or even conclusiveness as long as the guy gets the girl.  However, the reader who is a little more selective may find that  beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to Beauty for Ashes.