Highland Crossings: North Carolina

By: Pamela Griffin, Laurie Eakes, Jennifer Taylor

Product Description

An heirloom brooch unites the lives of four women in historic North Carolina. Seona flees Scotland with the brooch in tow hoping to find peace before her past is revealed. Fiona tries to recover the heirloom but ends up on the whipping block--with her rescuer a man she's not sure she can trust. Seren sells the brooch but soon regrets giving up something so precious for what could be a hopeless dream. Brynna seeks to reclaim the stolen brooch but risks losing something even more valuable in the process. Will God's path become clear in a new world?

Product Information

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 352
Vendor: Barbour Publishing
ISBN: 1616266449

ISBN-13: 9781616266448
Availability: In Stock
Series: Romancing America

Publisher's Description

Head to historic North Carolina where a brooch unites the lives and loves of four women. Dangerous accusations force Seona to leave Scotland with the brooch in tow, but will she find peace before her past is revealed? Years later, Fiona hopes to recover the brooch only to wind up on the whipping block. Can she trust the man who comes to her rescue? Seren sells the brooch to open a confectionery, but will the precious heirloom be lost to a hopeless dream? When the brooch is stolen, can Brynna reclaim it before she loses something even more valuable?

Author Bio

Award-winning author LAURIE ALICE EAKES has always loved books. When she ran out of available stories to entertain and encourage her, she began creating her own tales of love and adventure. In 2006 she celebrated the publication of her first hardcover novel. Much to her astonishment and delight, it won the National Readers Choice Award. Besides writing, she teaches classes to other writers, mainly on research, something she enjoys nearly as much as creating characters and their exploits. A graduate of Asbury College and Seton Hill University, she lives in Texas with her husband and sundry animals.

PAMELA GRIFFIN lives in Texas with her family. She fully gave her life to Christ in 1988 after a rebellious young adulthood and owes the fact that she’s still alive today to an all-loving and forgiving God and to a mother who steadfastly prayed and had faith that God could bring her wayward daughter “home.” Pamela’s main goal in writing Christian romance is to help and encourage those who do know the Lord and to plant a seed of hope in those who don’t.

Jennifer Hudson Taylor is an award-winning author of historical Christian fiction and a speaker on topics of faith, writing, and publishing. Jennifer graduated from Elon University with a B.A. in Journalism. When she isn’t writing, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, genealogy, and reading.

Gina Welborn worked in news radio writing copy until she took up writing romances. As a member of RWA and ACFW, she’s an active contest judge and coordinator. This Oklahoma-raised girl now lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her youth-pastor husband, their five Okie-Hokie children, and a Sharpador Retriever who doesn’t retrieve much of anything.

Editorial Reviews

I enjoyed reading and getting to know these personable and well developed characters. Each gifted author adds her own personal touch to four interacting progressive storylines. These can be read in one sitting or broken up into more. If I had to pick a favorite I it would be Sugarplum Hearts. I was entertained by these well written romantic and suspenseful novellas and had a hard time putting the stories down! I found the overall message inspiring and would recommend this book to others.

I give this book 4 stars. It was nice to see the clear connections between the four girls and understand their place in their family history. I've read books where this has failed miserably and leaves you guessing. I also included the Young Adult tag as this anthology is suitable for that reader.

Product Reviews

Highland Crossings: North Carolina 4.5 5 8 8

Great Red In Healer of My Heart by Pamela Griffin, you will get drawn into the story from start to finish. Seona leaves Scotland running from superstitous notions that would have gotten her hanged. Her cousin helps her stow away aboard a ship. Colin's brother becomes ill and beause Seona ran into him and spilled her pouch, he'd seen her herbs. So he seeks her out to treat his brother. She thinks she is fleeing her past but it follows her to America. Yet she finds freedom and trust in Colin. In Printed on My Heart by Laurie Alice Easkes, again you will get drawn into the story from start to finish. Fiona leaves Scotland to come to North Carolina. She has suffered so many hardships since her sister left Scottland. She feels if she finds a brooch that has been the family, it will solve everything. Like Fiona, we like to blame our bad luck on something. Owain tries to rescue her from a public whipping. Thus she ends up indentured to his family. Owain and his family are printers. Fiona cannot trust anyone since everyone she loves disappears or dies. Fiona is Seona's cousin. She is trying to find her sister. But she finds so much more than she expected. A story of love, finding faith and rewards. As Owain buys Fiona to save her, so does God buy our salvation. Then Owain sets her free just like Jesus does for us. I can hardly wait for the next story of course. I don't have to as it is in the same book. In Sugar Plum Hearts by Gina Welborn, another story that will hold you. Seren Cardew is the daughter of Fiona and Owain from last story. This is the third story about a family heirloom brooch. Seren has sold the brooch to fulfill her dreams of opening a Confectionery. People in town will not buy her sweets. Enters Finley who has arrived in town trying to get some business as a broker. He wants to buy a farm and settle down. God tells him Seren in his answer. She is hard to convince to trust him. Both Seren and Finley get more than they expect as God puts two people together. Fingley gives up his dream as a Farmer to help Seren fulfill her dream. That is pure love. He even surprises her with a special gift to wear their wedding day. In Hearts Inheritance, the beginning takes a while to get into story. But stick with it. Brynna has a dream to open a museum. But the towns people do not think a woman should. Her sister, Bonnie, has the brooch these stories are all about. Niall arrives in town from Scottland. His Uncle has died and left him the mill, his house and the place where Brynna works. Brynna sets out to dislike him from the start. Brynna is well liked in town yet the Mayor sells the property she wants to Niall. She tries to kill his plans. Instead it turns around to surprise her. Museum people are in town to advise her when the museum is announced by the Mayor. Things go wrong and Niall risks his life for the brooch. All four stories are about a family heirloom - the brooch. They all find out the brooch is not what they expected and find faith instead. Yet the brooch keeps getting returned to the family. March 28, 2012

Delightful, fun, fast-paced anthology. Highland Crossings is a delightful, past-paced read of four excellent novellas by four different authors. A Scottish heirloom, a broach, ties these romantic stories together as each of these journeys takes place at different times, starting with 1739 with Healer of my Heart, 1758 with Printed on my Heart, 1789 with Sugarplum Hearts, and then jumping to 1815 with HeartÃ¢ÂÂs Inheritance. Each story grips you with fun and believable characters, and events that are great entertainment. Even the names of these charactersÃ¢ÂÂSeona and Colin, Fiona and Owain, Seren Cardew and Finely Sinclair, and Brynna Sinclair and Niall Cameron---breath life onto the page. If you love books that have a Scottish flair then youÃ¢ÂÂll enjoy this anthology. You can hear the rolling of the Ã¢ÂÂRÃ¢ÂÂs in the dialogue for sure. Not only does it have all the dash and passion and swagger of Scotland, but by bringing the characters to the new world we get a true sense of what these immigrants experienced. Not once does the story bog down, but prances forward and is very hard to put down. The first author, Pamela Griffin, is new to me but a writer that I enjoyed very much in this anthology. I am already a huge fan of Laurie Alice Eakes, and her story in this book confirmed my good taste in this author. Highland Crossings was the debut for Gina Welborn, who really impressed me with her writing and I must say was a delightful read about her heroine, SerenaÃ¢ÂÂs candy story and the roguish and attractive Finley. The forth author, and certainly not the last, Jennifer Hudson Taylor, is also an author of whom I am a big fan. I highly recommend this book for a nice, fast-paced, inspirational and fun read. March 6, 2012

A Delightful Collection of Love in a New Land A delightful collection of stories that follow the journey of one treasured broach through four generations of young Americans. Four novellas all linked together by one broach, spanning generations. It all begins when Seona flees her native land in hopes of escaping a past of lies and misunderstandings, taking with her, her dear friend's family heirloom. The stories follow, an immigrant, wrongly forced into being made an indentured servant, a confectioner, and a young woman determined to perserve her community's heritage with a museum. For each of these young women, love is found in the most unexpected places, and their faith keeps them strong in times of hardship. Each of the stories were well crafted and made the most of the lack of length to develop the characters and the plot expertly. I would say that the broach showed up more porminantly in some stories than in others, so sometimes I was sitting there thinking, "When is the broach going to show up?" One of the tings I loved most about this book was the variety. Variety in the plots, and variety in the different authors' voices. The character development was amazing in all four novellas for such short stories. If I had to pick a favorite story, I'm sure that I couldn't do it. Which is a great thing! Overall, a great read. And especially great when you want to finish a story quick, and be able to lay it down and pick it up again in short intervals. Great book for those who like Irish/Scottish historicals, and Christian fiction in general :) Final Rating: 4 out of 5 I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. Thank you! March 5, 2012

Good Read This is the 2nd book of the series Romancing America that I have read and I really like them. They are a group of shorter stories but they fit together in such a way that it seems like one book. I am looking forward to reading more of these books. What I liked: The first story starts out in Scotland with Seona. She sails to the new world to get away from certain death. Along the way she finds love and we learn about the early settlements of America. Each story has different plots and characters but builds on the story before it some. ItÃ¢ÂÂs also the same family just generations forward. A good read. What I did not like: The last two stories the two main characters did not know each other very long at all or spend a lot of time together yet they fell in love very fast. Just not as believable as the first two stories where there was more time (story would jump forward weeks or months) for the characters to interact. Over all I liked this book and recommend this book. ItÃ¢ÂÂs an easy and quick read which can be nice when your looking for something not as deep as a regular novel. February 20, 2012