This is the first time I have read a book from this author and honestly if I am to judge by this one I won't be reading more. The story line itself was good but the author beat it to death that the main character Hetta believed herself to be ugly and couldn't move past that and Owen was so traumatized by his mother's bad behavior he couldn't get over his past either. The fact that they both had parents who were lousy is not my objection but the fact that it was repeated over and over and over again.
Other than that if the story had moved along better I would give this a higher rating. There are some great characters in the book and I did like the fact that Owen had compassion to help out others like Ben who was disabled from the war, Myrl who had been the town drunk, and even Hetta with her total lack of self confidence. The story improved when Hetta finally moved past her issues of feeling ugly and unloved and of course ended with a happily ever after.