Review: The Quarryman’s Bride by Tracie Peterson

Published: June 1^st, 2013 (Bethany House)

Pages: 352

Rating: 5/5

Source: NetGalley

Goodreads ~ Amazon

Emmalyne Knox and Tavin MacLachlan were destined to be together...until the tragic deaths of Emmalyne's youngest sisters. Family tradition mandates that the youngest daughter should remain single to care for her parents in their old age, and now that daughter is Emmalyne. Her father unyielding, Emmalyne surrenders to her duty, heartbroken. Tavin leaves town, equally devastated.

Years later, Emmalyne's family moves, and she and Tavin meet again. Their feelings for each other are as strong as ever, but their painful past and Emmalyne's father still stand between them. Soon both families are in the midst of the growing conflict rising between the workers at the granite quarry that Tavin's father owns and operates. When a series of near-fatal accidents occur, Tavin must figure out who is behind the attacks before someone gets killed.

Bound by obligation, yet yearning for a future together, can Emmalyne and Tavin dare to dream that God could heal a decade-long wound and change the hearts of those who would stand in the way of true love? [Description from Amazon]

I haven’t read anything by Tracie Peterson in I can’t tell you when. I’ve always enjoyed her novels, made up of a perfect combo of romance and history, sometimes with a bit of a mystery thrown in. Now, I’m not a big fan of “2^nd time around” romances (as opposed to first love stories); the characters are usually older and sometimes hurt emotionally (from first love). This is just not my cup of tea. But Peterson, as always, wove a brilliant story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

You might think it’s funny I’m mentioning this rather trivial aspect early in the review, but I loved the Scottish language. It was so much fun to read, and really brought the story to life. Yet, it wasn’t overbearing- I could understand the gist of what they were saying without getting confused. This, my friends, is often the difference between a well-written book and a poorly-written book. If another tongue or accent is used to liven up the dialogue, often times its waaaay overbearing and just ruins the whole book by confusing you to pieces. Thankfully this was not the case with The Quarryman’s Bride.

Something that irked me for about 2/3 of the book was Tavin. His anger was such a turn-off. He had reason to be angry, but he was so, so bitter about something that happened a long time ago, and it just seemed a little extreme. He seemed like a hothead, which is why I didn’t like him for a while. In fact, I liked Dr. Williams much better. He, on the other hand, seemed to genuinely care about Emmy, which made me like him better than Tavin. Then I started having these weird superstitions about Dr. Williams’ true intentions and overly-kind attitude, but that amounted to nothing, haha. Anyway, long story short, I ended up liking Tavin in the end (he learned to forgive and put aside his anger).

This is definitely what I’d call “fluff” reading. It’s light and romantic and relatively quick to read. And I enjoyed every bit of it. Peterson has written yet another incredible romance that will stay with us long after we turn the last page.

Quick Content Review: *may contain spoilers*

Language: None

Violence: Mild (a mentally unstable woman commits suicide)

Sexual: Mild (some innocent kissing)