UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

Author: Tracie Peterson ISBN: 0764227742 7/2006 INSPIRATIONAL Publisher: BETHANY HOUSE
Time Period: WW I era

Leah returns to her native village of Last Chance, Alaska, only to be kidnapped by her husband’s twin brother, Chase Kincaid. She is thrown together with the prickly Helaina Beecham, whom Chase has abducted as well. Leah’s husband and her brother Jacob are on their trail, but an early winter makes passage difficult. Will the two women be found in time? Helaina Beecham was sent north to track down Chase Kincaid, only to be kidnapped by him. Will she ever have the opportunity to tell Jacob how she feels about him? Even if she has the chance, could she really abandon city life for Jacob’s beloved Alaska?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Tracie Peterson continues her Alaskan Quest series with UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. The main characters from the first book are all back. The cover copy indicates this is Helaina's story, but that is misleading. It is as much Leah and Jayce's story as Jacob and Helaina's.

Of course, this is Christian fiction, so characters are striving to find God in their lives through each book. In UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS this plays a greater part than romance as Helaina learns to love God.

This novel offers a solid narrative and interesting characters, but it stayed pretty close to the surface - I found it surprisingly unemotional despite the travails of the characters. I liked the characters, but none of the events touched my emotions. I wish it had been deeper and more poignant.

The religious strength in this book revolved around that age-old question of why bad things happen to good people. A very bad thing does happen in the story, and Peterson does her best to help her readers come to terms with why good people still suffer and demonstrates how to accept and recover from the bad thing.

The book is also strong on the lifestyle of the World War One era in Alaska, and is very evocative of time and place.

At the end of the story, we are left with a lot of plot ahead of us for the third book, WHISPERS OF WINTER. Lots of hardship still to come!

Heather Hiestand