Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: The Strength of Her Spirit
Author: Janet Eddy Musick and Jeannie Eddy
Publisher: Tigress Press
ISBN: 0-9740848-7-8
Release Date: 2004
Genre/Sub-genre: Inspirational/Historical Romance
Year/Setting: 1856 in England and then the New World, America
Overall rating: 3.75
Sexual content rating: None
Janet Eddy Musick and Jeannie Eddy's Website: None found
Joan and Gilbert Morgan had an idyllic life outside of Liverpool. They owned their farm and along with their son and daughter, and Gilbert’s mother nearby, enjoyed the life they had there. Two elders from the Mormon Church had found their way to this farm and to Gilbert, a ready convert. As the Mormons prepared to leave England and travel to the Salt Lake Valley in the New World, Gilbert asked his family to leave all they had to travel to this new world. Gilbert was ready for a new adventure but Joan was happy with the life they had. After deep thought, Joan found she loved her husband more than she loved her possessions and agreed to travel this path.
After six weeks aboard ship, their adventure began. With great courage and faith, they began across America – leaving from Boston by train to Iowa City and from there by handcart to the Salt Lake Valley. The group of settlers had a wagon for the larger provisions such as food stuffs for the group but each family only had what they could push in their handcarts. As they began this journey, Joan also discovered she was with child. A child to be born in their new home!
The journey proved to be much more difficult than this group had imagined and required more of them then they had bargained for. The treacherous trail took every ounce of courage, strength and fortitude they could muster and still cost a great many lives in the process. The constant temptation was to give up along the trail – was their faith strong enough?
My struggle with The Strength of Her Spirit is the authors created a good story. However, it could have been a great story. I recommend it for daily reading but would encourage the authors to go deeper. There is character that hasn’t been touched within this story. I would have liked to explore the relationships surrounding Joan a bit more and experienced more dynamics between her and her loved ones. A bit more development of the scenery they were experiencing would have been helpful. The authors were true to history with the talk of either everything being dry and dusty or mud so thick it would draw you in but there was so much more that could have drawn from. I found myself a little disappointed in the end and wanting to know more.
In spite of this, however, there is a sweetness to this story that is enduring. I enjoyed how Janet and Jeannie entwined the character development and story with Joan Morgan’s journal entries. The strength of the character displayed by Joan was fascinating to watch as it continued to grow. Joan became stronger as the journey continued in spite of losing her husband and unborn child. With this strength, she kept her wits about herself and made sure that her son, daughter and mother-in-law had a new life. I enjoyed the author’s use of history within this story as well. So much of the information available today is on the strength and courage of the pioneer men which made it doubly interesting to read about the same features in some pioneer women. I applaud Janet and Jeannie for looking to their own genealogy for the inspiration to draw on for the character of Joan Morgan.
Lori
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