Faithful Heart - eBook Angel of Mercy Series #2 Repackaged

Im not a big western romance fan, so I had a difficult time with the setting of this novel, but all of you out there that have read this series or dig the western thing it was pretty good. The historical aspects were off a bit; there was a lot of medical knowledge going on that I thought wasnt accurate for the time period-but hey its fiction so sometimes you can bend the rules. For the most part the story just didnt grab me. The romance between John and Breanna was so full of sappy cheese I was craving nachos. Also the main meaty parts of the book when we meet the crazy and get a look into Dotties life, took a long time to build up to. At points when I was reading through Dotties turmoil I was thinking she might be the crazy one- due to the fact that she was not willing to get her kids out of a dangerous situation and stay with her husband (suffering from psychological war symptoms) whos on the brink of severely hurting himself and his family. Finally when we reach the climatic point of the book it comes at an abrupt violent end and all the characters that are left to face the outcome- get a nice easy way out with a happy ending. Sometimes I hate a happy ending...

Ride an adventure in old west America. Breanna, a nurse, joins a wagon train with the mysterious John Stranger, the man who loves her. But as she journeys further west, her sister in California endures trials of her owns as her husbands shell-shock from the Civil War grows worse. Read the stories of Gods faithfulness to both sisters.

This is the 2nd book in a new series, but the continuing story from Mr. Lacey's "Journey of the Stranger" series which is another four books. This book has certainly wet my appetite to try more from this author.

Faithful Heart is Book Two in the Angel of Mercy Series by Al Lacy. It is historical fiction, set during the time period just after the Civil War. I haven't read the previous book, but like many good series books this one can stand alone since enough back story is included to get the gist of the characters. I don't generally read historical fiction, but the plot for Faithful Heart is intriguing and fast-moving.

This novel has 2 stories. Lacy begins with the continuing love story of Breanna Baylor and John Stranger. When they are not lovingly gazing into each others eyes and telling of their undying devotion, they are fighting off outlaws and healing the sick. I can only surmise that Lacy included this plot line to bring together the various characters in several of his continuing series. The telling is very heavy-handed long on sermon, short on story. I found myself rolling my eyes at the conclusion of every scene involving these two lovers.The second plot line concerns Breannas sister, Dottie Harper and her husband Jerrod. Jerrod has a mental illness brought on by his service in the Civil War a sort of 19th century post-traumatic stress disorder. While this story is much more interesting than the first, and in my opinion should have been the only subject of the book, the ending is a little too pat and is somewhat distasteful given the faithful heart of Dottie.