Woman of Sunlight

After starting to fully enjoy staying up on Hope Mountain with Jo and realizing that I was going to prolong my fourth trimester as we all were confined to stay at home in the midst of the Pandemic of 2020, it was a strange struggle to adventure on a train with Ilsa and her newly shotgun wedding husband Mitch as they ventured far far from anywhere she had ever been. She was nervous, I was nervous. She was excited and in love, I was loving having my husband work from home and not have to journey out for homeschool requirements and activities. It was again and interesting parallel much like my experience with [b:Aiming for Love 43838133 Aiming for Love (Brides of Hope Mountain, #1) Mary Connealy https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552003773l/43838133.SY75.jpg 68221018]. In Woman of Sunlight, I was fascinated by Ilsa, and her character is possibly my favorite of the three sisters. This is a great read and the rest of the trilogy is worth the time as a whole. Highly recommended as always. Thanks to Netgalley and Bethany House Publishers for the blessing of letting me read this story.

I was looking forward to this one a lot–Connealy to me is escapist fiction for when I don't want something to strike too deep–and my expectation of enjoyment did make my disappointment overly strong as well. Two stars for “okay.” Most of the humor was centered around the misunderstanding of having a book of legends considered a “second bible” and after the first book the excessive “humor” about it was really heavy-handed and annoying. I also disliked that Mitch's mom thought it was okay to humor her belief and go along with her error without standing for her own beliefs a little more firmly (is Connealy softly suggesting, for instance, that we humor Mormons instead of saying truthfully we don't believe in a second holy book, then turn around behind their backs and say “well, you know, I don't really think that”?).

Other eye-roll moments were that half her “unknowns” made her look more stupid than ignorant, so there are some really cheesy lines that got past my patience mark.

However, the final third of the book focuses on the suspense and on Ilsa and Mitch learning to love each other. I really, really wanted more of this section. This is the sort of character bond that I love to see in a Connealy story. Sadly, it was over too quickly and my appetite was more whetted than satisfied.

I'll definitely be reading more in this series, even though this particular book was a miss for me.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.