The Hope of Azure Springs by Rachel Fordham

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The Hope of Azure Springs

In her debut novel, Rachel crafts a story of hope and healing, of beauty that shines from within, of the power of human kindness.

An orphan, Em, is "adopted" by a cruel and uncaring man who basically ignores her, though she does her best to survive. Once he is killed, she escapes and is taken to Azure Springs, where a kind family takes her in, nurses her back to help, gives her a bath and good food and loves her. The sheriff takes on her case to find the killers and, of course, they spend lots of time together and eventually the sheriff realizes that there is more to beauty that a pretty face.  Em is kind, caring, and has a gift for story telling

After she found out she was the talk of the town, her employer Margaret has some good things to say to her, things we could all benefit from. "Some people just haven't learned the secret."

"Em's eyebrows rose. 'The secret?'"
"'Yep, the secret. I'll tell you because we are much the same. Only I have been around long. Here it is. The secret is that you have to find a way to enjoy life on the ordinary days. You have to enjoy the little things, like yellow houses with bright red doors. You have to enjoy the sound of the door opening when your man gets home. The laughing of little ones. Those things are more fun than gossip, but it takes a trained mind to soak them in. These folks who waste their time talking about you and me, they are the ones missing out. Not us.....When we really live, we risk the pain. But you'll work through it."

Just some good stuff there. This story is your typical historical romance, but there is a lot more here too, lessons to learn. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what other books Rachel will write.

I received this book from Revell and was not required to write a positive review.

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