Miller said she 'loves a beauty and the beast' story, but this one is actually more Jane Eyre. Scarred and brusque bachelor with a spoiled daughter falls for nanny/housekeeper much younger than he is... that's the theme. Pure Jane Eyre.
I wish I could say I liked it, because I love Jane Eyre-esque stories. But I didn't. At all.
First, Caleb (H) has another, Love Inspired themed "polite" scar. Meaning it's VERY chrischun, this scar. It doesn't affect his hearing, sight, facial expressions, doesn't touch his hairline or ear, doesn't disfigure him at all. In fact, it keeps itself tidily to just one side of his face, so you can imagine what he looked like before by looking at the opposite hemisphere. Isn't that nice of that scar?! This is something like my THIRTY-FIFTH polite Chrischun, Love Inspired scar, and I. Hate. Them. ALL. They're cheats, and they're the sign of bad, BAD writing.
He does have a 'scarred hand', but Miller never tells us what ANY of his scars look like (descriptive writing is actually a thing, people...), what impediments they cause, which... by her writing, it seems none. In fact, we're told since his hand was damaged, he's FAR better at carving intricate designs in his carpentry projects. WHAT IS THAT?!!?
Second, the scene opens with Rebecca climbing up the framing of Caleb's barn to rescue a kitten in the dark after day one of a barn raising. 1) Caleb doesn't have cats, 2) how would a kitten scale a BARN during a barn raising, 3) nobody noticed this kitten... how? So she walks the beams, gets the kitten, turns around and Caleb is there, and he
PICKS HER UP AND CARRIES HER ACROSS THE BEAMS TO THE LADDER
. I'm not kidding.
There... it's... I have no words for the stupidity of this whole scenario.
Here's the next fun thing: Caleb has been in the Seven Poplars community for THREE WEEKS. That's it. During that time, Preacher Perry had a heart attack, and they need a new preacher. Now according to my research, preachers are chosen by the congregation nominating potential candidates, and then a slip of paper is put in a hymnal and each nominee is given a hymnal, randomly mixed up. Whoever gets the slip of paper is God's chosen preacher... yes?
NOBODY WOULD NOMINATE SOMEONE THEY DON'T KNOW!!!
Caleb's only been in town three weeks, he would never be a nominee... and yet Miller has him not only nominated, but choosing the slip of paper, and less than a month into his move to town, he's the new spiritual leader of the community?!?!? HOW ABOUT NO!!!
Miller doesn't know her German, either. "You climbed up my barn for a katzen?" The '-en' on any word makes it plural, my friends.
Then we're told that - while apparently it's NOT irresponsible for him to scale the frame of a barn and CARRY a woman across the beams while his child is inside the house sleeping, it *IS* irresponsible for him to walk her 300ft down the road to her house while his child is sleeping.
What. EVER. That makes about as much sense as *ALL* of the rest of this, so far.
Miller abuses Dorcas badly in this book, which to me is inexcusable. She makes her needy one moment, then fickle and dismissive the next. She also makes her ridiculous - when Dorcas' dad gets kicked by a cow, apparently Dorcas drives a buggy all the way to Rebecca's house, climbs down, and then... stands in one place and screams bloody murder to draw attention, instead of running up the porch steps and getting help?! WHAT IS THAT?!!? The woman is 28 years old, for the love of Mike!!! GAHHHH!!
Luckily, halfway thru this book I was putting away the previous episodes, and found the 'Matchmaker' series... and suddenly realized that this series doesn't stand-alone. It has ANOTHER five books about Seven Poplars, too... and I've read Dorcas' story, before. ((Thank GOODNESS her character is redeemed.))
But no to this one. It's badly done, and drove me CR-azy.