A Place in His Heart by Rebecca DeMarino - REVIEWED

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing A Place in His Heart Revell (June 3, 2014) by Rebecca DeMarino

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rebecca DeMarino was born in Pensacola, Florida, the daughter of a Navy pilot. Her mother made a home for the family of six all over the map, including Virginia, Nevada, California, Washington, and Guam, before her parents put down anchor on a ranch in Oregon.

As the wife of a young Air Force officer, married life brought more travel. She relied on her mother’s example of how to make a home anywhere. Her three beautiful daughters were born in Florida, Alaska and Nebraska.

Retired after sixteen years with a major airline, she manages to fulfill her love of wanderlust with frequent family or research trips.

Rebecca grew up listening to her mother’s family lore of a great-grandfather from generations ago. Barnabas Horton sailed from England in the 1600’s, to Long Island, N.Y., on a ship called The Swallow. In 1999, after she found Horton Point, L.I., on a map, Rebecca and her mother made the journey to see the lighthouse named after their ancestor.

The legend goes that Barnabas brought a slab of blue slate with him from England, and had the epitaph he wrote himself engraved on it. The blue slate still exists in the Old Cemetery in Southold, L.I., with the Bible verse, “He being dead, still speaketh.” Much information was found about Barnabas, but none of his wife, save a mention in his will.

Her mother passed away in 2005, but Rebecca returned to Southold many times, drawn by her Puritan roots and English heritage. Each time she wondered about her ninth great-grandmother, a young woman who married a widower with two young boys and then followed them for the wilds of Long Island, leaving behind her home and family. What were her dreams? Her motivations? Her fears?

Rebecca’s historical romance novel, A PLACE IN HIS HEART, debuts with Revell, a division of Baker Publishing House, in June of 2014.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Anglican Mary Langton longs to marry for love. Puritan Barnabas Horton is still in love with his deceased wife and needs only a mother for his two young sons. And yet these two very different people with very different expectations will take a leap of faith, wed, and then embark on a life-changing journey across the ocean to the Colonies. Along the way, each must learn to live in harmony, to wait on God, and to recognize true love where they least expect to find it.

This heartfelt tale of love and devotion is based on debut author Rebecca DeMarino's own ancestors, who came to Long Island in the mid-1600s to establish a life--and a legacy--in the New World.

My Thoughts:

“An pain built in her chest, and ache for a hope, wherever it would be.”  (p. 165)

Mary Langston, and Anglican lady, who dreads the marriage to the son of one of her father’s business partners, could have never imagined the journey she was about to embark upon when she falls in love with the widowed, Puritan, baker of their hometown of London, England in 1630!  Yes, he needed a mother for his two boys, and yes, it was quite the challenge to pursue parental consent from Mary’s staunch Anglican father when he decides to explore courtship, but Barnabas Horton never imagined what he would face when he asked Mary to accompany him to the New World as his wife.

A Place in His Heart is a fascinating look into the day to day struggles faced by those brave men and women who left England to come to America in pursuit of religious freedom!  Rebecca DeMarino does a masterful job of drawing readers back into the 1600’s.  She strikes a great balance between the details of daily life and the relationships between her cast of characters.  This story has an emotional intimacy that causes you to pause and take a look at your own relationship with God, all the while becoming totally immersed in the lives of Mary, Barney,  and their two boys, Joseph and Benjamin!

A Place in His Heart is the first of The Southold Chronicles, and I am delighted to introduce you to this series!  Rebecca DeMarino debuts in the market with a stellar historical romance that is sure to capture the hearts of many readers!

If you'd like to read the first chapter of A Place in His Heart, go HERE.

Rebecca is hosting a Giveaway worth over $300.00 in prizes. There will be 8 winners! Scroll to the bottom of the post HERE to enter!!!!!