Lucy wants to be a photographer and will try to get anywhere she can to get a good picture. She wants a job at the newspaper but finds out the owner prints a story that she did but rewrote it with untrue things. So she decides not to work for the newspaper. She was helping a friend get well by hiding him at the church , her friend comes to see about her and somehow catches the church on fire. She tries to raise money by taking photographs but has problems with doing it. There is a lot of twists in the book, very interesting. This book starts out slow and silly, but eventually does grab your attention in such a way that you need to find out how it ends. We meet Lucy and her brother, Caleb, right away. Lucy is minding her own business when mischief comes right to her and she literally falls out of a tree and into trouble! Soon afterwards she meets mysterious David Wolf who rescues her and immediately gets under her skin. The instant attraction between them did not impress me, but as the story progresses their interactions become more realistic and precious. However, just as soon as they meet he disappears. He’s in town on a mission and this feisty redhead is not about to distract him from attaining his purpose no matter how attractive she is. Does this story sound familiar yet? I thought it was going to be completely predictable at this point. I was wrong.Lucy loves taking pictures and she understands every aspect of photography in 19th century Texas before women have careers or the ability to vote. However, as talented and dedicated as she is with photography, she’s always getting into trouble. It’s a small town and Lucy seems to attract mishaps wherever she goes. Examples: she almost gets mauled while photographing a bobcat, she almost gets trampled trying to photograph a stampede, and she causes a fire while taking a picture.What I didn’t like about Lucy: even though she loves God and wants to do the right thing she doesn’t pray until she’s in trouble (which is constant); she is deceptive to her father because she doesn’t think he’ll understand or he’ll try to stop her; she has good intentions, but she’s always putting herself and others in danger before thinking things through. And yet, despite these flaws, I found that even if I don’t relate to the character Lucy is, I did understand her motives. What I appreciated about Lucy: she has an amazing heart and is constantly going out of her way to help others, she is very protective of her brother and puts his needs as well as her father’s needs ahead of her own, she is naïve but eager to see justice carried out, her passion for photography allows her the ability to see people for who they really are.David and Lucy work together to rebuild the town church after it accidentally gets destroyed, solve a 20 year old mystery that traumatizes four different families, face past losses (for Lucy it’s the loss of her mom and indifference of her dad; for David it’s his deprived childhood), they learn forgiveness and letting go all while figuring out their feelings for each other along the way. Despite the slow start this book has, the last 80 pages had me eager to find out the conclusion. How much trouble can one 20 year old woman get into? You won’t believe it until you read this clever Texas tale that shows us to never give up on your dreams no matter how out of reach they are and to trust God’s plan for your life. I want to thank NetGalley.com and Thomas Nelson for the free copy they provided for my review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
