The Cautious Maiden- Christian period romance filled with intrigue & passion!

My Thoughts:

"Jesus paid it all, all to whom I owe..." is still on my mind and in my heart after swooning through this wonderful period romance. The Cautious Maiden, by Dawn Crandall, is the 4th book in the Everstone Chronicles series. It's involves dashingly handsome and wealthy Vance Everstone (I guarantee he'll make your heart pound!) and beautifully innocent Violet Hawthorne. The book begins with an attack on Violet where Vance comes to her aid. With his questionable past and rumors that seem to endlessly follow in his wake, Violet questions Vance's motivations and finds herself feeling quite alone. Her parents have passed away and her brother has turned their home into a brothel! Going from bad to worse, Violet awakens one morning to find that she and Vance are in bed together! Through no fault of her own, she is compelled to remedy her reputation through an arranged marriage soon after. What is to become of our heroine?

I absolutely loved this book. The relationship between Violet and Vance is sizzling and mysterious (clean romance with plenty of passion) as there are many unanswered questions that come to light throughout the story. The setting is enchantingly romantic, the dialogue is perfection (I had to force myself to slow down and savor), the storyline is delightfully composed of bible verses, hymns and themes of redemption, true love and forgiveness. But don't be lulled into thinking this is all sweetness and light- there is also intrigue and danger! Violet's brother, Ezra, is a gambler, among other unsavory things, and shares his company with scoundrels. In fact, he "gambled" his own sister- and lost her to the retched Rowen Steele! Now Violet is at the mercy of Vance- but can she trust him? It's the first book I've read by Dawn Crandall and I truly look forward to reading more.

More about the Book:

Violet Hawthorne is beyond mortified when her brother Ezra turns their deceased parents' New England country inn into a brothel to accommodate the nearby lumberjacks—but when Violet's own reputation is compromised, the inn becomes the least of her worries. In an effort to salvage her good name, Violet is forced into an engagement with a taciturn acquaintanceAnd—Vance Everstone. As she prepares for a society wedding, Violet learns that her brother had staked her hand in marriage in a heated poker game with the unsavory Rowen Steele, and Ezra had lost. Now Rowen is determined to cash in on his IOU. With danger stalking her and a new fiance who hides both his emotion and his past, Violet must decide who to trustAnd—and who to leave behind.

Dawn Crandall is an ACFW Carol Award-nominated author of the award winning series The Everstone Chronicles, which consists of four books: The Hesitant Heiress, The Bound Heart, The Captive Imposter and The Cautious Maiden which released October 4th, 2016.
Apart from writing, Dawn is also a mom of two little ones and serves with her husband in a premarital mentorship program at their local church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
A graduate o…f Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble, Dawn Crandall didn’t begin writing until 2010 when her husband found out about her long-buried dream. It didn’t take her long to realize that writing books was what she was made to do.
Dawn is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, the secretary for the Indiana ACFW Chapter (Hoosier Ink), and an associate member of the Great Lakes ACFW Chapter. She is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the publisher, and this is my honest review.