Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs REVIEWED

“She was beginning to realize how few things were hers to manage.” (Dowager Lady Marjory Kerr, p.314)


Indeed, Dowager Kerr learned many things were not in her power to control throughout the course of this story. “Not the weather, certainly. Not the furnishings beneath her roof. Not the health of those around her. Not the fate of her sons in battle. And not the faithfulness of the wives they left behind.” (p. 314) For you see, dear reader, this story takes place during the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland in 1745, and Dowager Lady Kerr discovers that her sons have political leanings of their own. She learns that the soldiers in King George’s service can brutally take anything they want from her home. She has learned that even her own daughter’s-in-law are capable of loving someone besides her sons. Most importantly of all, Dowager Marjory Kerr has learned that only God alone is faithful, even despite the selfish distrust she has shown toward Him most of her married life.


Here Burns My Candle is a complex story, and Marjory Kerr is but one of many memorable characters written within the story. Lady Elizabeth Kerr is an even more prominent character, and this Hilander seamstress has won the heart of Dowager Kerr’s oldest son Donald. However, as she approaches her third anniversary, she learns that faithfulness is something her dear Donald knows little about. By the time he is ready to beg her forgiveness and support her Jacobite cause, Elizabeth finds herself learning that Donald is not the only one who stands in need of mercy. She has secretly followed her mother’s pagan faith amid the Christian faith of her in-laws. When war rages around her and her husband’s faithlessness is still a raw wound in her heart, Elizabeth meets the One who can give her the love and faithfulness she has longed for.


Liz Curtis Higgs can bring the Scottish past to life like no other I know! I devoured her Galloway stories, and cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am to find another enthralling saga within which to lose myself entirely. Loosely based on the story of Ruth, Here Burns My Candle is a story that makes you realize anew that truly, there is nothing new under the sun. Without the atoning blood of Christ, we are all lost amid the human sinfulness that surrounds and overwhelms us. Yet once grace is introduced, even the darkest of circumstances bear the light of hope, and Elisabeth, Marjory and Janet Kerr are Scottish women who will leave a lasting impression upon your heart.


I am left hungry for more. I will eagerly await Mine Is the Night and the opportunity to learn what becomes of the dear Kerr ladies and their wounded, broken hearts. Ahhhh! This is historic fiction at its finest! Here Burns My Candle…please, indulge yourself!


Purchase your copy HERE today!!