The Lady of Bolton Hill

Since Valentine's Day is Thursday, I'll share some of my favorite romances. I don't currently have a list but I should probably compile one (hmm...already thinking ahead to next year!). So basically, there's no particular order in what I'll be sharing this week. The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden is a Christian romance. It's actually been a while since I've read it, so I'm going to share my sister Alisa's recap of it:

Daniel's dreams are crushed when he is called away from taking the exam that might be his one chance at a college scholarship... because there has been an accident at the steel mill where he and his dad work, and his dad is trapped. Despite his heroic actions (and abandoning his chance at his scholarship) his dad dies... because of a faulty machine part.

Shortly after his dad's funeral, his best friend and the one bright spot in his life, Clara, is sent away to England to live with her aunt.

Twelve years later... Daniel has become a successful businessman who is a little strapped for cash because of his vendetta against Alfred Forsythe - who Daniel holds personally responsible for the death of his father. Alfred Forsythe owned the steel mill that Daniel and his father worked for, and Daniel felt that the faulty machine part could have been prevented if Forsythe hadn't been trying to cut corners. Daniel has a lot of patents on superior railroad equipment, and he refuses to sell any of his equipment to Forsythe. If Daniel's company goes public, then he becomes one of the richest men in America, but he knows the board of the public company will agree to sell his equipment to Forsythe.

Clara returns to America after an anonymous benefactor pays for the best lawyer in England to get her released from prison there. She is a journalist, and wrote a story about the treatment of the children in the mines - which landed her in jail. She returns to America and plans to continue being a journalist.

For Daniel and Clara, friendship comes easy. They seem to pick up where they left off, but life is never that easy... Daniel carries a lot of anger and refuses to have anything to do with God, and then there is the article that Clara writes that seems to put a permanent wedge between them...

And then there's Bane who has been commissioned to destroy Daniel. His plan seems to be working perfectly at first, but he didn't count on how the strength of a virtuous and God-fearing woman could change his heart.

And right as Daniel hits rock bottom he realizes what is really important to him and what is worth fighting for (and what is worth letting go) - hitting rock bottom ends up being the best thing that ever happened to Daniel!

This was a fun, clean read! It was refreshing to read a story where the main characters haven't seen each other in 12 years and there was no animosity between them when they were reunited but rather catching up with each other and continuing their friendship from so long ago. There are still some rough patches--after all, there does still need to be a story. I enjoyed this book and plan to read it again.

My Rating: 4.5 stars