Lauraine Snelling, The Brushstroke Legacy

The Brushstroke Legacy

Lauraine Snelling

Waterbrook, September 2006, $13.99

ISBN: 1578567890

In Chicago, Ragni Clausen feels her life is a lie, as she has failed at everything important. At her job at Advantage Advertising Inc., she feels like screaming, as someone modified her dog biscuit ad campaign. Her love life just ended unceremoniously. Her dad suffers form dementia. Now her mom has a note from a Paul Heidelberg, claiming the family cabin on the Little Missouri is in need of repair after two harsh winters. Her sister Susan and their mom want Ragni to go to the Badlands to fix the cabin while on vacation, but Susan demands she also take her niece Erika with her by calling in a sisterly favor.

Not only is Erika irate over having to tag along, she detests the need for a baby sitter as she is a teen, though her mom explained she will be busy much of the summer. In the Dakotas, the two females find the cabin devastated and consider persuading mom to sell to Heidelberg. However, they find several paintings by Ragni's great-grandmother Nilda that inspire the two women to make a go at restoring the family cabin, and Paul as a surprisingly young neighbor willing to help.

THE BRUSHSTROKE LEGACY is a warm character study that enables readers to compare life between 2002 and 1906 Badlands. The strong realistic evolving relationship between the aunt and her niece is delightfully portrayed, though the same cannot be said of the seemingly rushed love between Paul and Ragni. Still, the thrust of this fine moving story is the three generations of women finding their respective niche.