Thursday, June 2, 2011

Review: A Great Catch

A Great Catch (Lake Manawa Summers - Book 2) by Lorna seilstad

Publication Date: May 2011
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group/ Revell Books
Genre: Christian Fiction
Pages: Paperback, 380pp
ISBN-13: 9780800734466
ISBN: 0800734466

(Received for review from Revell Books)


Lorna Seilstad on the WEB: website, blog, facebook, twitter

Excerpt from A Great Catch

Synopsis (Book Blurb):

She wants to change the world.
He wants to change her mind.

It's the beginning of a new century at Lake Manawa resort in Iowa, but some things never change. When Emily Graham's meddlesome aunts and grandmother take it upon themselves to find her a husband among the resort guests, the spunky suffragist is determined to politely decline each and every suitor. She has neither the time nor the need for a man in her busy life.

Carter Stockton, a recent college graduate and a pitcher for the Manawa Owls baseball team, intends to enjoy every minute of the summer before he is forced into the straitlaced business world of his father.

When their worlds collide, neither Emily nor Carter could have guessed what would come next. Will Carter strike out? Or will Emily cast her vote for a love that might cost her dreams?

The perfect summer novel, A Great Catch will enchant you with its breezy setting and endearing characters.

Thoughts:

Author Lorna Seilstad takes readers back in time to the year 1901 and Lake Manawa, Iowa. In her latest installment in the Lake Manawa Summers series,
A Great Catch, Lorna Seilstad uses one of America's favorite past times to create a great plot that readers will love. This novel will be a great hit with Christian fiction and historical fiction fans as well as romance readers. Filled with women's rights, baseball exhibitions, family problems and finding your calling as themes, many readers will consider this one a grand slam!

Emily Graham has a one track mind. All she thinks about is her belief in the woman's suffrage movement. She's determined to prove that woman deserve the right to vote. She doesn't have time for anything else, especially not finding a husband. When her two aunts and her grandmother decide it's high time that Emily finds a beau, they take it upon themselves to find her one out of the summer guest at Lake Manawa. Emily may be smart and determined, but she's also clumsy and when she falls into the arms of a man at the skating rink she isn't prepared for what follows. Carter Stockton is a man on a mission. He has to find a way to show his parents that baseball and not his father's business is the life for him, but when he meets Emily everything changes.

Lorna Seilstad's second book in the Lake Manawa Summers series,
A Great Catch is full of humor and rollicking good times, but there are also some really great underlying themes. Seilstad has a knack for using humor in her writing. It gives great comic relief to the more serious aspects of the book and humor also draws in the reader and makes them enjoy the read that much more. I thought she did a fantastic job of making Emily's aunts and grandmother supporting stars in this book. Their antics add a lot to the story and readers will be chuckling and saying to themselves, "My grandmother was like that," or "my neighbor done the street would have said the same thing."

One of the themes that I found the most interesting was the women's suffrage movement and how it plays into Emily and Carter's love story. Emily is determined to have an exhibition game between the woman's "Bloomer Girls" team and the local male team, the "Manawa Owls." In her mind this will show the world or at least Lake Manawa that women deserve the same rights as men and can do anything the men can do. When she and Carter begin to spend more time together it becomes evident that there dreams may not be in line with each others. Does the suffrage movement mean more to her than finding love? I thought author brought up some really valid points and I think readers will appreciate her sentiments.

Both Carter and Emily develop quite a bit throughout the story. Emily learns a lot about herself and what is important to her. She has to make some decisions that are not easy. Carter on the other hand has a big decision to make himself. He has to decide whether to follow the path he feels he is led to or the path his father wishes for him. I think that parents sometimes don't realize the pressure they put on kids to the things they feel in right for them. Sometimes God leads in a direction that parents don't anticipate and I thought the author did a great job with expressing that. Carter's growth as a character was not as prominent as Emily's but I think readers will really identify with his struggle.

Available May 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!




A history buff, antique collector, and freelance graphic designer, Lorna Seilstad is the author of Making Waves and draws her setting from her home state of Iowa. A former high school English and Journalism teacher, she has won several online writing awards and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers.

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