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Sowers #1
Where Freedom Grows
This first book in the Sowers Trilogy follows the extraordinary triumphs and hardships of two brave young Russians in search of political and spiritual freedom.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
310 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Bonnie Leon
32 books181 followersBonnie Leon is the author of twenty-three novels, including the recently released One Hundred Valleys, To Dance With Dolphins, the popular Alaskan Skies and bestselling The Journey of Eleven Moons.
Bonnie’s books are being read internationally and she hears from readers in Australia, Europe, and even Africa.
She enjoys speaking for women’s groups and teaching at writing seminars and conventions. These days, her time is filled with writing, being a grandmother and relishing precious time with her aged mother.
Bonnie and her husband, Greg, live in Southern Oregon. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren.
You can find bonnie at
https://www.bonnieleon.com
https://www.facebook.com/BonnieLeonAu...
https://www.bonnieleon.blogspot.com
https://www.@bonnie_leon
https://www.pinterest.com/bonnieleon/
Bonnie’s books are being read internationally and she hears from readers in Australia, Europe, and even Africa.
She enjoys speaking for women’s groups and teaching at writing seminars and conventions. These days, her time is filled with writing, being a grandmother and relishing precious time with her aged mother.
Bonnie and her husband, Greg, live in Southern Oregon. They have three grown children and eight grandchildren.
You can find bonnie at
https://www.bonnieleon.com
https://www.facebook.com/BonnieLeonAu...
https://www.bonnieleon.blogspot.com
https://www.@bonnie_leon
https://www.pinterest.com/bonnieleon/
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 23, 2021
Do you ever pick up a book knowing that you be annoyed as soon as you finish? I have the first one in this trilogy and the last, but the thrift store I talked myself into getting it from didn't have the second... Sigh.
I wanted more Yuri.
The author twice put one of the main characters and their respective love interest into a very interesting position and then switched to the other one. When we got back life was going on as close to normal as possible. I don't really mind, but that might not be your thing.
I wanted more Yuri.
The author twice put one of the main characters and their respective love interest into a very interesting position and then switched to the other one. When we got back life was going on as close to normal as possible. I don't really mind, but that might not be your thing.
February 14, 2025
Below is a spoiler summary of the entire book:
This book starts in 1930 in Russia with a fully intact family of 4 living on a farm. They're raided by the NKVD because they lived on their own land rather than a collective farm, accused of being Kulaks. The parents are not heard from again. Yuri and Tatyana live with their aunt, uncle, and cousins. For her safety, Tatyana is sent to America to live with another uncle. She didn't want to go.
While Yuri stays, their cousins' farm home is raided. Yuri and his uncle are arrested and brought to a mass grave with numerous other arrested people and everyone is shot. Yuri was lucky to have survived his gunshot. He and another survivor, Elena, escape in the dark before they get around to burying the presumed dead. Yuri and Elena make their way to Moscow, get new identification and work for the construction of the tunnels for the Moscow subway. At this job, they meet a man who is involved in the underground distributing Bibles and other illegal Christian writings. Elena doesn't believe in God. Yuri and Elena start to get close and Elena is learning about God. Then, Yuri is arrested again while he has a Bible with him. He spends months in a jail starving away and undergoing interrogations with beatings until he signs a false confession that gets him 10 years hard labor in Siberia. That's all we know of Yuri.
The book follows Tatyana as she travels to America. She actually wasn't sent enough resources to get there. Fortunately, she makes friends along the way. She meets a good family on the train that helps her and helps a little girl whose mother is arrested and taken away. Then, she meets a wonderful older woman (Flora) on the ship that sails to America. When she gets to New York, Flora helps Tatyana get to her uncle, but she finds out that her uncle died in a fire, so she has nowhere to live. Flora's nephew Dimitri helps get her a job with his own employer, among the live-in cleaning staff for a rich man, Mr. Meyers.
Mr. Meyers takes a trip to Chicago to the 1933 World's Fair and brings Tatyana and Dimitri along. Mr. Meyers finds Tatyana attractive and wants a relationship, but is rejected. He doesn't respect this rejection and Dimitri intervenes, saving her from him. Mr. Meyers fires both of them.
Dimitri and Tatyana get close, but Tatyana wants to go back to Russia. She hasn't heard from Yuri, her cousins, neighbors or anyone. She worries. After struggling to get stable employment, Dimitri gets a job in Washington State. Before he goes, he marries Tatyana. End of book.
My impressions at this point are mixed. I am fascinated by this mix of locations in history. The storyline taking place in Russia is harsh. It conveys Stalin's reign of terror with pretty severe brutality. I appreciate the contrast with the fact that Tatyana wants to go back to Russia, to her home land, which is beautiful - notwithstanding this. As Americans point this out, it irks her.
On P. 181, I found it interesting that Elena learned to ride a bicycle at her childhood home. Was it customary for a Russian girl to ride a bicycle in the 1920s?
There was a lot of unnecessarily descriptive language about smoking.
Many of the characters in the book are Christian. I suspect that the specific religious views of the author are written in to convey a consistent Christian view for all characters in the book. I'm not an expert on Russian Orthodox, but I suspect that the views of these Russian characters are more like American protestant than Russian Orthodox. Many beliefs may be the same. A common religious theme throughout the book is why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Here are some examples of religious dialogue:
"God offered humankind paradise, but we chose to submit to that serpent and sought knowledge instead. It's not what God wanted." p. 193 (the "story" of Adam and Eve) I don't agree with this interpretation of this scripture.
On the other hand, I did like this quote:
"'But I am always reminded of what my Lord did for me, and I can't complain.'
'What do you mean?'
'He chose to suffer for us. He didn't have to, but because he loved us, he allowed himself to be beaten, nailed to a cross, and then he died. But even more than that, he took on the sin of the entire world so we could be free of it. I cannot imagine his torment. ' Her eyes filled with tears. 'And he did it because he loves us.'" p. 191
Another quote, not religious:
"People only remember the good about the past. They forget how bad things were. Home won't be the same. What you see in your mind isn't there any more. Until you let go of what was, you will never be able to live today." P. 268
At least one typographical error:
"It is you who have been deceived." P. 283. Singular should be "has", not"have", so context dictates the correctness of the grammar. In this case, it is speaking to one person.
This book starts in 1930 in Russia with a fully intact family of 4 living on a farm. They're raided by the NKVD because they lived on their own land rather than a collective farm, accused of being Kulaks. The parents are not heard from again. Yuri and Tatyana live with their aunt, uncle, and cousins. For her safety, Tatyana is sent to America to live with another uncle. She didn't want to go.
While Yuri stays, their cousins' farm home is raided. Yuri and his uncle are arrested and brought to a mass grave with numerous other arrested people and everyone is shot. Yuri was lucky to have survived his gunshot. He and another survivor, Elena, escape in the dark before they get around to burying the presumed dead. Yuri and Elena make their way to Moscow, get new identification and work for the construction of the tunnels for the Moscow subway. At this job, they meet a man who is involved in the underground distributing Bibles and other illegal Christian writings. Elena doesn't believe in God. Yuri and Elena start to get close and Elena is learning about God. Then, Yuri is arrested again while he has a Bible with him. He spends months in a jail starving away and undergoing interrogations with beatings until he signs a false confession that gets him 10 years hard labor in Siberia. That's all we know of Yuri.
The book follows Tatyana as she travels to America. She actually wasn't sent enough resources to get there. Fortunately, she makes friends along the way. She meets a good family on the train that helps her and helps a little girl whose mother is arrested and taken away. Then, she meets a wonderful older woman (Flora) on the ship that sails to America. When she gets to New York, Flora helps Tatyana get to her uncle, but she finds out that her uncle died in a fire, so she has nowhere to live. Flora's nephew Dimitri helps get her a job with his own employer, among the live-in cleaning staff for a rich man, Mr. Meyers.
Mr. Meyers takes a trip to Chicago to the 1933 World's Fair and brings Tatyana and Dimitri along. Mr. Meyers finds Tatyana attractive and wants a relationship, but is rejected. He doesn't respect this rejection and Dimitri intervenes, saving her from him. Mr. Meyers fires both of them.
Dimitri and Tatyana get close, but Tatyana wants to go back to Russia. She hasn't heard from Yuri, her cousins, neighbors or anyone. She worries. After struggling to get stable employment, Dimitri gets a job in Washington State. Before he goes, he marries Tatyana. End of book.
My impressions at this point are mixed. I am fascinated by this mix of locations in history. The storyline taking place in Russia is harsh. It conveys Stalin's reign of terror with pretty severe brutality. I appreciate the contrast with the fact that Tatyana wants to go back to Russia, to her home land, which is beautiful - notwithstanding this. As Americans point this out, it irks her.
On P. 181, I found it interesting that Elena learned to ride a bicycle at her childhood home. Was it customary for a Russian girl to ride a bicycle in the 1920s?
There was a lot of unnecessarily descriptive language about smoking.
Many of the characters in the book are Christian. I suspect that the specific religious views of the author are written in to convey a consistent Christian view for all characters in the book. I'm not an expert on Russian Orthodox, but I suspect that the views of these Russian characters are more like American protestant than Russian Orthodox. Many beliefs may be the same. A common religious theme throughout the book is why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Here are some examples of religious dialogue:
"God offered humankind paradise, but we chose to submit to that serpent and sought knowledge instead. It's not what God wanted." p. 193 (the "story" of Adam and Eve) I don't agree with this interpretation of this scripture.
On the other hand, I did like this quote:
"'But I am always reminded of what my Lord did for me, and I can't complain.'
'What do you mean?'
'He chose to suffer for us. He didn't have to, but because he loved us, he allowed himself to be beaten, nailed to a cross, and then he died. But even more than that, he took on the sin of the entire world so we could be free of it. I cannot imagine his torment. ' Her eyes filled with tears. 'And he did it because he loves us.'" p. 191
Another quote, not religious:
"People only remember the good about the past. They forget how bad things were. Home won't be the same. What you see in your mind isn't there any more. Until you let go of what was, you will never be able to live today." P. 268
At least one typographical error:
"It is you who have been deceived." P. 283. Singular should be "has", not"have", so context dictates the correctness of the grammar. In this case, it is speaking to one person.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2025
On a random, nostalgic basis, I feel like trying a ChristFic oldie, especially if it's historical fiction.
I wanted to try this novel in particular because the bit of the blurb I skimmed made me think of The Russians by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella. Although I wasn't big on the writing style(s) in that partly co-authored series, I enjoyed the reading overall for the historical events and for the chance to really immerse myself in the period setting.
Plus, I really liked the series' book covers and epic titles. (A look at five of the seven original covers, here.)
Similarly, although I didn't get attached to the characters in Where Freedom Grows, I got into the international period settings and different aspects of the history.
The characters' dialogue is pretty stilted in a lot of places, sometimes leaning toward the melodramatic. And while in an older ChristFic novel especially, it doesn't surprise me to come across passages or scenes aimed on teaching faith and salvational lessons, I admittedly skip past those parts to get back to what else is happening in the story. Hence, I did some skipping during this read.
Now, leaving plenty that's meant to be resolved later on in the series, this novel doesn't have much of a climax or a strong resolution. It makes its ending through a phase in one of the romantic storylines, which isn't my favorite kind. (That is, if a character has to persuade, argue, and basically beg their love interest into finally giving in to become a couple—and even after that, their love interest still has doubts about being in the relationship—then the whole situation feels conflictive and iffy to me. Not so compelling or…romantic.)
Still, the novel's events in general kept this lover of historical fiction interested. Also, the series' old-fashioned cover artwork appeals to that nostalgic side of mine. So I plan on continuing the series.
Note:
• heavy themes of violence and death
I wanted to try this novel in particular because the bit of the blurb I skimmed made me think of The Russians by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella. Although I wasn't big on the writing style(s) in that partly co-authored series, I enjoyed the reading overall for the historical events and for the chance to really immerse myself in the period setting.
Plus, I really liked the series' book covers and epic titles. (A look at five of the seven original covers, here.)
Similarly, although I didn't get attached to the characters in Where Freedom Grows, I got into the international period settings and different aspects of the history.
The characters' dialogue is pretty stilted in a lot of places, sometimes leaning toward the melodramatic. And while in an older ChristFic novel especially, it doesn't surprise me to come across passages or scenes aimed on teaching faith and salvational lessons, I admittedly skip past those parts to get back to what else is happening in the story. Hence, I did some skipping during this read.
Now, leaving plenty that's meant to be resolved later on in the series, this novel doesn't have much of a climax or a strong resolution. It makes its ending through a phase in one of the romantic storylines, which isn't my favorite kind. (That is, if a character has to persuade, argue, and basically beg their love interest into finally giving in to become a couple—and even after that, their love interest still has doubts about being in the relationship—then the whole situation feels conflictive and iffy to me. Not so compelling or…romantic.)
Still, the novel's events in general kept this lover of historical fiction interested. Also, the series' old-fashioned cover artwork appeals to that nostalgic side of mine. So I plan on continuing the series.
Note:
• heavy themes of violence and death
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews