Review: The Minister's Daughter by Julie Hearn

Book: The Minister's Daughter
Author: Julie Hearn
Publisher: Atheneum
Release date: May 17, 2005
Source: Borrowed from local library

Summary: (from Goodreads) In 1645 in England, the daughters of the town minister successfully accuse a local healer and her granddaughter of witchcraft to conceal an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, but years later during the 1692 Salem trials their lie has unexpected repercussions.

First impressions: The book introduces us to two different perspectives from the start: one is the young Nell, granddaughter to a local healer, in 1645 England; the other is Patience, younger sister to Grace, daughter of the town minister, who writes her own account of the events from 1692 Salem. I liked this alternating style, which added a level of deception and spite to the unfolding accusations of witchcraft.

I was also immediately taken with the voices of the girl Nell and the woman Patience. Hearn does a great job of establishing the stubborn ignorance of Nell, and the woeful remorse of Patience. These contrasting views only add to the heartbreak we know is coming.

Lasting impressions: I was quite taken by surprise with the amount of magical wonder throughout the book. The townspeople are new to the Puritanical religion, and are hesitant to completely disregard the paganism that has been a large part of their lives. Hearn takes this belief and spins it as truth, with the characters interacting with fairies and little creatures called "piskies." It is fanciful and yet confusing. Are we readers to believe these creatures exist? Or are these the imaginings of a simple people who are not able to make sense of the world around them? I'm not sure what the intent was, but it was still delightful to read.

Negative impressions: That said, some of the longer scenes with the fairies and piskies didn't feel like they belonged in this tale. The shorter sightings and interactions were much more effective for me. Though Nell goes through a long sequence to obtain an item that becomes incredibly important later in the book, while I was reading it I couldn't figure out the point of that scene and it frustrated me as a reader.

Overall impressions: This is the kind of story that resonates with me. The "witchcraft" that so many women were said to practice in the 1600s was typically nothing more than pagan ritual, and oftentimes accusations flew to draw attention away from themselves or to act out against the repressive male hierarchy. The mass hysteria that fuels this hunt for wrongdoing and scapegoats turns my stomach, and insults my sense of justice in the world, so I was quite taken with the subject matter.

Here, a minister's daughter discovers she is pregnant, is rebuffed by her lover, and decides to start acting possessed as a way to cover her tracks. Nell despises the haughty attitude of Grace, and refuses to give her an abortifacient when she realizes that the baby may be a "merrybegot" like herself - a sacred child of nature. So begins the quest for revenge, with Grace providing more and more nails in Nell's withcraft coffin, and poor Nell unable to see how her pagan rituals are only adding fuel to the fire.

These events are also told retrospectively by Patience, Grace's sister, who is in the midst of her own witchcraft trial in Salem some 40 years later. By her admittance that Grace is only pretending, we can only read on in horror as Nell and her grandmother are persecuted by their peers. It is a quickly moving tale with depth of feeling and carefully layered expositions into the actions of the main players. We soon realize that Grace and Patience's father, the minister, may be more complicit than first assumed, and that other characters may not care whether or not Nell is actually innocent.

I highly recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, particularly those with an interest in the witch hunts. Although the primary narrative is not concerned with the trial, it is a fascinating study of how these types of charges were set up and delivered with the kind of one-two punch that can only result in a knockout. These women had no chance to refute the charges against them, completely oblivious to the danger approaching as they went about their daily lives. The book also speaks to the benefits of doing what is right no matter the cost, as you never know when your actions may come back to help or haunt you.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Silly Sunday (5) - Chicago Blizzard

Last week was exciting in Chicagoland! Before the storm had even finished unleashing its fury on our streets, reporters were already naming it the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011. I was one of the lucky ones whose bosses decided to close up shop early on Tuesday afternoon, and we stayed closed for all of Wednesday and Thursday. Most of the city was starting to resume operations on Thursday, but pretty much everyone was home on Wednesday as workers tried to clear streets and get people moving again.

Why is this silly? Because weather like this isn't just crazy. It is crazy silly. I dug up some of my favorite clips to share with you: thundersnow, 70 mph wind gusts, and dogs enjoying the aftermath.

Everyone kept asking me: What is thundersnow? It's just what it sounds like. A thunderstorm in freezing conditions so instead of rain, you get snow. It typically results in much heavier snowfall than your average snowstorm. It also feels incredibly creepy to listen to thunder and watch lightning crash while it's snowing.

This first clip is The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore freaking out when caught off guard by a lightning flash.



The wind was the scariest part of this storm, and because it was whipping straight across Lake Michigan, was a major factor in why Lake Shore Drive came to a standstill. With already slick conditions, when the wind started picking up, cars were blown across lanes and the resulting accidents backed up traffic and off-ramps, leaving hundreds of cars and motorists stranded on the Drive for up to 12 hours.

Here's a great clip showing the force of the winds. I saw news footage of pedestrians getting blown across streets. Craziness.



One brave soul went to North Avenue Bridge early on Wednesday morning and captured views of the trapped cars stuck in huge drifts of blowing snow. Cars had snow blown into their interiors and into the engines.



And now for some silliness. In the aftermath, the ones who enjoyed it the most were the dogs. As the streets started to clear, lots of folks had to shovel their own alleys and streets to unbury their cars. My favorite part of this clip is about 45 seconds in, when you can see a guy up the street shoveling snow with a bucket.



All is well at my house. Our dog wasn't a huge fan of our drifts, but once we shoveled a path for her, she got the hang of it. We finally shoveled out the drift behind the garage and were able to get the car out yesterday. Freedom!

Enjoy the day, and stay silly.

Review: Giving Chase by Lauren Dane

Book: Giving Chase
Author: Lauren Dane
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release date: September 1, 2006
Source: Free Kindle ebook purchased via Amazon.com

Summary: (from Goodreads) Some small towns grow really good looking men! This is the case with the four Chase brothers. The home grown hotties are on the wishlist of every single woman in town and Maggie Wright is no exception.

Maggie has finally had it with the men she’s been dating but a spilled plate of chili cheese fries drops Shane Chase right into her lap. The sheriff is hot stuff but was burned by a former fiancée and is quite happy to play the field.

After Shane’s skittishness sends him out the door, Maggie realizes that Kyle Chase has had his eye on her from the start. Now that Shane has messed up, Kyle has no intention of letting anything stop him from wooing her right into his bed.

Despite Maggie’s happiness and growing love with Kyle, a dark shadow threatens everything—she’s got a stalker and he’s not happy at all. In the end, Maggie will need her wits, strength and the love of her man to get her out alive.

First impressions: From the beginning, I liked Maggie and found her interesting enough to follow and see where her story went. Her crushingly low self-esteem was a bit eyeroll inducing at times, but in the first few scenes she is spunky, fun, and an all-around great gal living in a sweet, small town in Georgia.

Lasting impressions: It's a fluff read, and it's designed to be, so I can't say that this one is going to linger on in my memory for all eternity. I will say, though, that the suspense element in the story is well-developed and I thought that part was executed on a higher level than I anticipated from a romance novel. Nice surprise!

Negative impressions: Though I did like the suspense through-line, the author left it behind for a big chunk in the middle there, and I found myself wondering if that was just a device to get Maggie involved with the hunky Chase brothers or if it was going to come back. Just when I had lost hope in seeing that plot element again, it popped up and helped me plow through to the end of the book.

I was also bothered by the fact that Maggie gets involved with more than one of the Chase brothers. Her first relationship is with Shane, then switches to Kyle, which ordinarily is not a problem, but here, the relationship with Shane serves no purpose other than to say that Shane is damaged. But this is not Shane's story. It's Maggie's. So why spend all of that time getting Maggie involved with Shane? This book is part of a tetralogy focusing on each of the four Chase brothers, so it's possible that Dane anticipated resurrecting that story line when she wrote about Shane. For this novel, it just confused me.

Overall impressions: This is a fun, quick read. It's not overflowing with sex scenes, the characters are interesting, and the suspense element gives it a nice edge. If this book were a TV show, it would be a cross between a primetime soap opera and Law & Order: SVU. Girl meets boy, girl dates boy, boy rejects girl, girl dates boy's brother instead, girl gains stalker, girl gets in over her head, all is resolved. The end.

While I did enjoy the characters, they were underdeveloped. Most of the supporting characters were nothing but caricatures with over-the-top reactions and unbelievable actions. Often plot twists and turns stemmed from odd character choices that didn't necessarily fit with the story. I didn't buy that Maggie's mother could be that awful, particularly when balanced against the fact that Maggie is made out to be a successful and beautiful woman. The brothers are womanizers, yet Shane is chastened by his father for mistreating Maggie. Either they were brought up to treat women well or they weren't.

Still, this novel surprised me, and overall I really enjoyed it. If you're looking for a quick read with some lusty bits and some suspenseful bits, it's a good choice.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Want a different perspective? Check out this five star review by I Just Finished Reading.