A group of ladies outside St. Charles, Missouri meet weekly to quilt - and face post-war life together - each Thursday. They quilt, pray, and keep each other going through the tough years during and following the Civil War. They also counsel each other through healing and second chances at love and romance.
The Quilted Heart is the very best kind of novella - it's a novella trilogy that follows a group of friends through the course of several seasons. Hodgson wove love and romance through this group of friends, offering them all second chances at love, all while keeping the same wide cast of characters. It really gave the reader the feel of a a big story instead of a small novella - you have the opportunity to fall deeply in love with the characters and to champion their causes. The stories were deep, the faith questions real and the answers valid, and the problems are historically appropriate and interesting.
I really enjoyed reading about these people - these friends. I must say, though, that I liked the first two stories the best, for all of the above reasons.
The third was a bit different. The third story felt more like a wrap-it-all-up story to me. There were multiple love threads that were never pulled. A sequel would be a great possibility, because I'd love to hang around these people again and hear more of their stories - but this one part felt unfinished to me.
The ending of the last story was also very open-ended. There's nothing wrong with that, of course - but the love story was not quite wrapped up. It really hadn't quite begun. While you can see where the author was going with it, I personally prefer more details. So maybe a sequel is in order. I could certainly get behind that - but I wasn't ready for that final story to end.
Is that a good thing? I don't know. Read The Quilted Heart and find out for yourself.
I received a free copy of The Quilted Heart from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.
