by: Vickie McDonough

Dancing Word Reviewer

Title: Amethyst

Author: Lauraine Snelling

Publisher: Bethany House

ISBN: 0-7642-0054-2

Genre: Inspirational/Historical/Fiction

Though Amethyst Colleen O’Shaunasy has done the work of both a woman and a man on her father’s farm, she knows she will not inherit the land once he’s gone. With trepidation, she obeys her father’s command to leave Pennsylvania and go west to find her young nephew, who is heir to her father’s property, but when she arrives in the Dakotah Territory, she discovers a troubling surprise concerning her nephew.

For the first time, Amethyst is treated with respect and even makes friends with other women. She dreams of making a new home in this beautiful land, but can her father survive without her?

Major Jeremiah McHenry returns to the Dakotah Territory after he retires from years in the army. He’s ready to buy some land, build a house, and settle down. He might even consider getting married if he could find someone willing to marry a battered ex-soldier.

Amethyst is drawn to Jeremiah. She loves the stories of his past life and would like to know him better. But can Jeremiah ever see her as more than just the boarding house owner’s helper? Will Amethyst stay in the Dakotahs or return home, once again to bend to her father’s every command?

Amethyst is the fourth book in Lauraine Snelling’s Dakotah Treasures series. It’s the story of a woman who has spent her whole life caring for her family. She longs to be married, but her father chases off every man who dares come close to her. When Amethyst’s father sends her to the Dakotah Territory, at first she is nervous, but she sees God’s hand in several events, and soon believes God gave her a way to escape her overly-dependent father.

I was well in to Amethyst’s story and enjoying it when the author jumped in to the point of view of characters from the previous book: Opal Torvald and Pastor Jacob Chandler. This threw me at first, since for a hundred pages, the book had only been in Amethyst’s and Jeremiah’s points of view, but after I got into the flow and remembered some of Opal’s story, it was nice to see the two romances parallel each other.

While I’ve read Opal, the third book in the Dakotah Treasures series, I was not privileged to read the first two books and did not understand all the references in Amethyst concerning characters from those books. This is a series where readers would benefit most from reading the books in order, if possible.

As with other Lauraine Snelling novels, Amethyst is rich in historical detail and flavoring. The faith message is deftly woven in and will encourage readers. Historical lovers will enjoy Amethyst, the story of a man and woman, who thought love had passed them by. ($12.99, 350 pages)