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Silver Hills Trilogy #2
Song of My Soul
Adrian Gamble gets more than he bargained for when he moves to Hartville, a booming mining town in the Colorado highlands. He was hoping for a life of quiet anonymity, but as the new owner of the town's silver mine, he instead finds himself under the voracious scrutiny of everyone in town the moment he arrives.
288 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2004
28 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Ginny Aiken
51 books97 followersGinny Aiken, a former newspaper reporter, lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and their three younger sons--the oldest is married, has flown the coop, and made her a doting grandmother. Born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Valencia and Caracas Venezuela, Ginny discovered books at an early age. She wrote her first novel at age fifteen while she trained with the Ballets de Caracas, later to be known as the Venezuelan National Ballet. She burned that tome when she turned a "mature" sixteen. An ecletic list of jobs--including stints as reporter, paralegal, choreographer, language teacher, retail salesperson, wife, mother of four boys, and herder of their numerous and assorted friends, including the 135 members of first the Crossmen and then the Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps--brought her back to books in search of her sanity. She is now the author of twenty-seven published works, but she hasn't caught up with that elusive sanity yet.
http://ginnyaikenwrites.com/About_Me....
http://ginnyaikenwrites.com/About_Me....
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 19, 2017
Read for my IRL book club; otherwise not something I would have picked.
January 25, 2017
Very interesting book! Other than the quilting scenes, I found it very intriguing, romantic, and exciting. :)
June 14, 2025
This story kept me turning the page . A good clean read.
A young Phoebe and Adrian team up and try to solve a mystery despite things going on around them a romance starts to bloom
A young Phoebe and Adrian team up and try to solve a mystery despite things going on around them a romance starts to bloom
February 25, 2009
Although I wasn't the biggest fan of the first book in the series, I did read the second. Same story with names changed. Not planning on reading book #3 in the series.
November 29, 2022
Adrian Gamble has purchased the silver mine and general store once owned by the late Mr. Hart, in Hartville, along with the fussy mansion Hart called home. He must first assess his holdings, but sees no issues with keeping things as they are, at least for the present. This includes the widow who runs the store. In fact, as he sees how neat and orderly things are, he feels confident he needn't change a thing about the store. And so he begins inspecting the rest.
Phoebe Williams was widowed when her pastor husband John, who had been hired as associate pastor to the local church, was killed while inspecting the working conditions of Chinese workers, and they along with him, by a roof cave in. Mr. Hart, needing help in the store, had hired her and given her the tiny house behind the store as her living quarters. She had no other support, so Mr. Hart's death and the new owner's impending arrival had her bringing her worries to God quite often. Now reassured, she continues her diligent work. Orphaned at age 10 and with nowhere to go, she had been taken to the Shakers, who took in orphaned children. Ten years later, she had left as a companion to an older woman, unable to reconcile many of the Shaker teachings with the clear commands of scripture and thus, was unwilling to sign the members' covenant and stay. She apprecieted the love and the teachings that aligned with the Bible, though. After the woman died, she and John had married and come to Hartville.
No good deed goes unpunished in a small town, though, especially among strong willed bitter gossips and weak willed women who believe them. A series of actions taken individually and corporately by Phoebe and Adrian result in a lot of malicious lies.
Adrian is, however, hiding something. Nothing is as attractive to a gossip as a mysterious person. Add to that his attempts to rectify wrongs and the mutual attraction he and the young widow have for one another, and the people upset by their actions, and the whole thing becomes nearly unbearable - for both of them. While he tells Phoebe his secret, no one else knows. False accusations are piled on Adrian's head and result in his arrest. As things look the most bleak, and both seek God's wisdom, is this the end of everything for both of them, or is there a ray of hope in the stories of their lives that can help both of them out?
Small town gossip is well featured in both this story and the story of the homeopathic physician in the first book of the series. It was my life from the time my parents divorced in the 1950s, when I was 6, and I have been told, along with someone's silver or jewelry, has been passed down and embellished to succeeding generations. The author has indeed caught the malice, bitterness, and suspicion of that minority of people turned gossips who will make anything up or twist the truth if needed to get the attention they crave. Today, they could be sued for slander...should anyone care to bother.
I was also appreciative of the explanations of Shaker beliefs. I hadn't looked into their beliefs as by now, to the best of ny knowledge, they're long gone. I had wondered about my MGM's disdain for the sect, dying out when she was a child, as well as the admiration of my Spritualist PGP & my father for their beliefs. It is no wonder my parents divorced when I was 6 - the occultic syncretism of my father & his family clashed with my MGM's clear faith, one that was not passed along by her chosen denomination - where she had seen her need for a savior and responded - because by her children's births, the denomination no longer preached salvation as was enshrined when the church was originally started during the Reformation. Still, enough had been passed on to Mom to realize being with my father was no way to live, and that exposing me to more of their false doctrine was a bad idea. It was an eye opener, and the townspeople - who either sent orphans to the Shakers or made them homeless and thus, esp girls, liable to be forced into prostitution - had plenty to say about Phoebe having been raised by them for 10 years, just as they blamed young girls forced into prostitution as criminals who enticed their spouses from the marriage bed, absolving men disobedient to God's command to control their base instincts and remain either celibate until marriage, or faithful to the wife of their youth.
The characters are engaging, even the negative ones, against whom you feel anger or disdain, because they make the story for the positive characters for whom you end up rooting.
The story is, IMO, even more well written than the first book, quite a feat. I look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy.
Phoebe Williams was widowed when her pastor husband John, who had been hired as associate pastor to the local church, was killed while inspecting the working conditions of Chinese workers, and they along with him, by a roof cave in. Mr. Hart, needing help in the store, had hired her and given her the tiny house behind the store as her living quarters. She had no other support, so Mr. Hart's death and the new owner's impending arrival had her bringing her worries to God quite often. Now reassured, she continues her diligent work. Orphaned at age 10 and with nowhere to go, she had been taken to the Shakers, who took in orphaned children. Ten years later, she had left as a companion to an older woman, unable to reconcile many of the Shaker teachings with the clear commands of scripture and thus, was unwilling to sign the members' covenant and stay. She apprecieted the love and the teachings that aligned with the Bible, though. After the woman died, she and John had married and come to Hartville.
No good deed goes unpunished in a small town, though, especially among strong willed bitter gossips and weak willed women who believe them. A series of actions taken individually and corporately by Phoebe and Adrian result in a lot of malicious lies.
Adrian is, however, hiding something. Nothing is as attractive to a gossip as a mysterious person. Add to that his attempts to rectify wrongs and the mutual attraction he and the young widow have for one another, and the people upset by their actions, and the whole thing becomes nearly unbearable - for both of them. While he tells Phoebe his secret, no one else knows. False accusations are piled on Adrian's head and result in his arrest. As things look the most bleak, and both seek God's wisdom, is this the end of everything for both of them, or is there a ray of hope in the stories of their lives that can help both of them out?
Small town gossip is well featured in both this story and the story of the homeopathic physician in the first book of the series. It was my life from the time my parents divorced in the 1950s, when I was 6, and I have been told, along with someone's silver or jewelry, has been passed down and embellished to succeeding generations. The author has indeed caught the malice, bitterness, and suspicion of that minority of people turned gossips who will make anything up or twist the truth if needed to get the attention they crave. Today, they could be sued for slander...should anyone care to bother.
I was also appreciative of the explanations of Shaker beliefs. I hadn't looked into their beliefs as by now, to the best of ny knowledge, they're long gone. I had wondered about my MGM's disdain for the sect, dying out when she was a child, as well as the admiration of my Spritualist PGP & my father for their beliefs. It is no wonder my parents divorced when I was 6 - the occultic syncretism of my father & his family clashed with my MGM's clear faith, one that was not passed along by her chosen denomination - where she had seen her need for a savior and responded - because by her children's births, the denomination no longer preached salvation as was enshrined when the church was originally started during the Reformation. Still, enough had been passed on to Mom to realize being with my father was no way to live, and that exposing me to more of their false doctrine was a bad idea. It was an eye opener, and the townspeople - who either sent orphans to the Shakers or made them homeless and thus, esp girls, liable to be forced into prostitution - had plenty to say about Phoebe having been raised by them for 10 years, just as they blamed young girls forced into prostitution as criminals who enticed their spouses from the marriage bed, absolving men disobedient to God's command to control their base instincts and remain either celibate until marriage, or faithful to the wife of their youth.
The characters are engaging, even the negative ones, against whom you feel anger or disdain, because they make the story for the positive characters for whom you end up rooting.
The story is, IMO, even more well written than the first book, quite a feat. I look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy.
January 27, 2019
While this book brings back the characters from book one, the two main characters are new. Phoebe is a young, widowed woman. Her husband was a minister. Adrian is a man who comes to town with a past he needs to hide. He is the new owner of the mine and the general store. Phoebe is the clerk in the store. All is not right at the mine. Some accidents may have been murders. Including the one that killed Phoebe’s husband. This book is full of tenderness, mystery, deaths, and love. The town even has a group of bitties who spread gossip and untruths. Their hatefulness changes the course of Phoebe’s and Adrian’s lives. Another great book by Ginny Aiken.
February 28, 2018
SONG OF MY SOUL by Ginny Aiken book 2 “Silver Hills”
With an alias name, new business ventures and bringing smiles on the widow Phoebe’s face, was Adam’s day now. Doing what was right, was dangerous, and lost of being around loved ones. Phoebe singing touch the coldness of his heart, and he now was afraid of losing it. A delightful story of trusting in the Lord, of being in the right place, and plans he has for one.
Touching also on forgiveness of taking a life, and second chances in life and love for them.
With an alias name, new business ventures and bringing smiles on the widow Phoebe’s face, was Adam’s day now. Doing what was right, was dangerous, and lost of being around loved ones. Phoebe singing touch the coldness of his heart, and he now was afraid of losing it. A delightful story of trusting in the Lord, of being in the right place, and plans he has for one.
Touching also on forgiveness of taking a life, and second chances in life and love for them.
February 9, 2018
Better than the first one.
October 2, 2019
Great book!
This book was great! I am new to this author's works but cannot wait to read book three in this series along with other books written by Ginny Aiken
This book was great! I am new to this author's works but cannot wait to read book three in this series along with other books written by Ginny Aiken
December 26, 2020
Suspenseful
Excellent book. Good Christian values espoused. Lessons taught, and a mystery woven and solved. Good book for a lazy afternoon of reading.
Excellent book. Good Christian values espoused. Lessons taught, and a mystery woven and solved. Good book for a lazy afternoon of reading.
September 8, 2015
Silver Hill's Trilogy
Book 2
Adrian Gamble is running from something. He has men after him. Since he is a wanted man, he cannot afford to get close to anyone. So when he buys a mill and general store after the owner dies, Adrian wants nothing but to keep to himself. But beautiful Phoebe Williams captures his heart. She insists on assisting him on learning the secrets of the deaths of miners that also took her preacher-husband's life. When it leads to drugs, things turn dangerous and she soon finds herself a mother.
The romance in this book was oh-so-sweet! There were plenty of steamy kisses and lots of busy-bodied gossips to bring some sizzle to this book. We also get to see plenty of Dr. Letty and her new husband (from the first book).
I'm enjoying this series!
Book 2
Adrian Gamble is running from something. He has men after him. Since he is a wanted man, he cannot afford to get close to anyone. So when he buys a mill and general store after the owner dies, Adrian wants nothing but to keep to himself. But beautiful Phoebe Williams captures his heart. She insists on assisting him on learning the secrets of the deaths of miners that also took her preacher-husband's life. When it leads to drugs, things turn dangerous and she soon finds herself a mother.
The romance in this book was oh-so-sweet! There were plenty of steamy kisses and lots of busy-bodied gossips to bring some sizzle to this book. We also get to see plenty of Dr. Letty and her new husband (from the first book).
I'm enjoying this series!
Read
March 12, 2009JF-YAAik
December 24, 2015
I didn't like this book as much as I liked the first and third, but it was still a suspenceful and well written story
June 20, 2012
Good story but a bit wordy....
Read
May 4, 2019It was really good. Book 2 of 3 and it kept you trying to figure things out.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews