Page Turners

August

Journey to Love
by Charlotte Hubbard
Reviewed by Peggy Hillmer

JOURNEY TO LOVE, the second book in the Angels of Mercy series, is a tender, touching story of love and family and one girl's search for both. Christine Bristol’s inspirational tale will move you as she tries to reunite her "real" family and explore the possibility of love with a former admirer. Her plan doesn't include God, but she discovers He is part of everything.

Willful and spoiled, Christine has much to learn about life. She once again runs away to find the mother who abandoned her and her brother at a stagecoach depot four years earlier. She's determined to bring back her Mama and she enlists the help of Tucker Trudeau, the handsome Cajun photographer she met on an earlier adventure. Christine's mother has been implicated in activities with a confidence man. Tucker's mother, a seer and healer with strange religious powers, brings her misgivings about their relationship along on the trip west.

The second book in the Angels of Mercy series, JOURNEY TO LOVE picks up Christine’s story where A PATCHWORK FAMILY ended. You needn't have read the first book in order to enjoy this one; however, A PATCHWORK FAMILY is a wonderful tale of a young couple who work a station on the Pony Express line. I highly recommend it.

Ms. Hubbard's interweaving of history will keep you turning pages, while her descriptive settings transport you along the Union Pacific line to San Francisco. This is a great follow-up story, which left me eager for the next in the Angels of Mercy series.

Lisa Meyer is an attendant at her best friend’s wedding, and happens to have a huge crush on her friend’s twin brother, Mark. At the reception he finally kisses her. Actually, not to put too fine a point on it, he does more than kiss her. He sweeps her off her feet and promises a night neither will forget. Then, before the evening ends, she sees him leave the reception with another woman. Lisa smiles through her anger and moves on.

In present day, eight years later, Lisa is a forceful campaign organizer and fund-raiser for a gubernatorial candidate in Missouri. Totally committed to electing her candidate and making a place for herself in his administration, she's using a huge fund-raising event in St. Louis to prove she can handle the greater responsibility. Unfortunately, at the last moment, she finds herself face-to-face with Mark Smith, the man who ran out on her. He's attending the function as the guest of honor and a major contributor. She thinks Mark is a snake, but (darn it!) she feels the old familiar pull to him.

Mark can't believe that by filling in for his father at this fund-raiser, he's found Lisa again. He remembers the night at his sister’s reception when he thought Lisa was “the one.” After helping a friend’s sick girlfriend to her car, he hurried back to find Lisa but she was gone. Although he's still a little peeved that she dumped him all those years ago, he still feels an attraction, and he's determined to find out if she feels the same. If she does, he has another campaign in mind for her: A marriage campaign.

I enjoy politics and so it was fun seeing how the supporting cast in a campaign works. The way Michele brought St. Louis locations into the story and wove in Lisa's friends was well-done. Subsequent books will feature the friends as they find their true loves, too—good news for Michele’s fans!