Another wonderful piece from Ms Stansfield!! I just love her writing style and character development. She adds just enough mystery and intrigue to the love story. So much so that I am always reluctant to put the book down! Five stars!

This is my first Anita Stansfield book. I thoroughly enjoyed your writing about Christian faith, feelings, unconditional love and forgiveness. My concern is that you limit your audience by going to far. As a Christian myself, I found your words to be powerful and full of meaning. As a reader of about 2 – 4 books per week, I found too much length and explanation in this beautiful story. At about 35% I was thinking – let’s get to the real part of the story. There seemed to be too much in this one book or that the book should have been ‘quicker.’ I read through all of it, not skipping any because I loved it, but again, it was too wordy.

You were amazing with sharing the inner turmoil of the characters and how they dealt with that turmoil. Not many writers have the depth of understanding you showed when it comes to writing about feelings and understanding them as being real to each person. I do hold exception with your estimation that Danny has no issues with how he was treated by his father. Those issues may not be seen for a while, but it is hard to believe there will not be some residual effects from the trauma.

Frederick and Lily’s love story is beautiful. So is Abigal and Luca’s. Fredrick and Lily’s love for their children is beautiful. Their care for their neighbors is far beyond caring.

I hesitate to write anything publicly because I believe this is truly an amazing book and I am glad I stuck with it. I worry that should I put any of the above in a public review, such as Amazon, it may keep someone from picking up your book or purchasing it for their kindle. Coming from a reader and not a writer, my hope would be for someone to read your book and not be put off by feeling like they are ‘being preached at.’ If you limited your ‘preaching,’ you might reach a larger audience.

Thank you, Ms. Stansfield and Net Galley for allowing me to write an honest review in exchange for this ARC.

Lily Broadbent was a widow with 11 children, but they were adopted. But she loved them all the same. Frederick Woodstone was an ex vicar and now a tutor. He needed a job and Lily needed a tutor for her children.
This was a long story but I think it had to be for all the questions to be answered. I can't imagine 11 children but the servants and her took excellent care of all of them and her estate.. The descriptions were very good as were the characters. They seemed so life like, in both their actions and dialogue. The plot has twists to the tale and some surprises. It has danger and some intrigue. It moves smoothly, even paced and keeps your attention. I loved the idea of how they managed to keep the children happy and were so generous with themselves in regard to helping those on their estate. Mr. Toop had lost his wife and child and was in deep grief, she took a basket and Mr. Woodstone to see if he could ease Mr. Toop's grief. This is a book for all ages and is a clean read. This is a new author for me and I am so glad I got a chance to read this book.