Anne's Reviews > Remembered

After struggling through Rekindled and skipping Revealed, I picked this one up since I had won it through a GR giveaway, and felt bad at having left it on my shelf for so long. It was a very poignant, moving and beautiful story, and I am so glad I finally read it.



Set in beautiful Willow Springs, Colorado, this novel is more than just a romance. It's principally the wonderful story of a courageous woman's journey to self-discovery while searching for her missing father.

Parisian thirty-year-old Véronique Girard serves as a companion in a wealthy French family in Paris, France. She is used to an easy enough life, her position not being considered lowly enough to characterize her completely as a servant. On her deathbed, Véronique's mother has her promise that she will leave Paris and depart for the Americas in search of her missing father, who had left nearly 25 years ago in the hopes of making his fortune in fur trade. The man had never sent for his wife and daughter, but persuaded he was still alive, Véronique's mother was determined that her daughter should get the chance to search for him and see him again.

Alone in the world, Véronique leaves her beloved France for the United States, and makes it to the remote town of Willow Springs. Her plan is to get someone to drive her to all the nearby mining towns, in order to find her father. Trouble is, Véronique hadn't realized that a fancy French beauty like herself would attract innumerable undue attention by advertising that she is looking for a driver. The only gentleman-like man trustworthy enough within a hundred miles is widower Jack Brennan, who is starting a new career as a freighter to the mining towns, after thirteen years of guiding wagons West. He wants nothing to do with Véronique, and believes her plan of going into the mining towns absolutely horrendous and out of the question. If she already got too much attention here in Willow Springs, what would it be like once she reached the mining towns? Most of the men working there hadn't seen a decent, let alone beautiful, woman in ages, and she was certain to get into a lot of trouble. And besides, wouldn't driving with her alone in a wagon for hours be indecent?

Unfortunately for Jack, the local blacksmith has taken pity on Véronique, and agreed to sell her Jack's wagon, which had been built specially for him. If Jack wants his wagon, the woman comes with it, and if he wants another wagon, he risks losing his job because of the delay building another wagon would cause.



Looks like you're stuck with the pretty parasol and reticule-wearing French coquette, my dear Jack!

Véronique was a wonderful heroine; beautiful, intellectual, resourceful and brave, she was determined that nothing would stop her from finding her father once she started. Her French flair and personality made her interesting, and her increasing faith in God was heartwarming. She was a perfect match for Jack, who was as hard-working and honest as he was handsome and loyal. Their journey of love and adventure was a joy to witness, as were their own personal struggles.

The story was a bit slow-moving, and there was a lot of focus on the sexual attention Véronique kept getting from men/Jack being drawn to her but not wanting to do anything untoward (it's admirable that he wants to stay a gentleman and not get carried away, but, please, if there is to be a kissing scene, let's not ruin by saying that the hero needs to break the kiss before he succumbs, it's just not very romantic.), hence the four stars. There was also a lot of French in the novel, so if you're not too familiar with the language, I recommend having a nearby dictionary.
A few annoying mistakes in the French, too, which made me grit my teeth a lot, and itch to grab a pen and correct it. -.-

This is a Christian novel, and it is spiritual-orientated, so if "preachy" isn't your kind, I probably wouldn't pick this up. It wasn't overdone or anything, in my opinion, but there is a focus on God.