Cathy Marie Hake Forevermore

Forevermore

Cathy Marie Hake

Bethany House, Jan 2008, $13.99

ISBN: 9780764203183

In 1891 Texas, farmer Jakob Stauffer misses his late wife Naomi not only as a companion he cherished but because she brought order and organization to his household of his pregnant sister Annie Erickson and his young daughter Emmy-Lou. Miss Hope Ladley arrives looking for work as a temporary housekeeper. The widower Jakob finds her upbeat and very kind towards his beloved daughter and her mule Hattie with the hat. Her references are the best, and she will not mistake his hiring her as a matrimonial interview so he hires her.

Jakob hopes that Hope can bring order like his late wife did until she died sixteen months ago. Instead she brings even more chaos; yet things are done well and Stauffer finds he enjoys the insanity that the workaholic Hope brings to the mix as everyone seems happy for the first time since Naomi died. His new fear is what he will do when she decides God calls on her to move on. However, before that occurs a viper enters Eden when Annie's odious spouse Konrad arrives destroying the equilibrium and much more.

Hope is a unique character as she humorously idioms and colloquialism like 'you don't know me from eva and you know me from Adam' as he is male. Readers will be amused by her commentary as she is Mary Poppins on the farm in late nineteenth century America. The support cast augments life on the farm in a bygone era as readers will wonder like Jakob who believes, thanks to God, he has fallen in love for the second time in his plentiful life if his beloved will leave.

Harriet Klausner