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I love stories about treasure hunts. It’s not the money that intrigues me but the mystery and the long search for forgotten clues and mislaid information. I also love the idea of history rediscovered. In many cases it brings to light where loved ones rest and allows for a proper burial and monument. This book is all about treasure and how the hunt for gold can lead us to something far more valuable. 
Addie McRae longs to teach children. When the opportunity arises for her to leave her Mississippi home and serve as a nanny/governess to an unusual young man in Marshall, Texas she jumps at the chance. Moments after she and her mother step off the train they meet Pearson Foster and his friend Theo, rough looking men who help with their luggage and whom her mother is convinced God meant them to encounter. Addie brushes this aside as she prepares to meet her charge, young Cedric (Ceddy) Whitfield. Their initial interaction is a disaster and Addie is ready to go home in defeat, but at her mother’s urging she tries again. With the help of her grandmother’s necklace she is able to draw him into a tentative, positive encounter. Will her success continue? She determines to stay and find out.
Pearson Foster has been hunting treasure for years. The lure of the gold that went down with the steamer Mittie Stephens has brought him to Texas but it is the beauty he meets at the train station that really captures his imagination. The two don’t have many chances to get to know each other until Pearson encounters her at church. Slowly he begins to form an acquaintance with the prickly young miss. But misunderstanding after misunderstanding becomes the norm for them. Will he be as unlucky in love as he has been in finding the Mittie?
The author attempted to tackle a lot in the pages given to her. There was the romance between Addie and Pearson. The search for the Mittie Stephens. The nervous disorder of Ceddy. The mystery from Africa and the two villains who accompany it. And of course, the big misunderstandings. For the most part she succeeds, but her plot often moves forward at the sacrifice of the romance.
Addie was the source of most of the problems, mainly because she is the source of one of the big misses. She develops the passionate belief that Pearson is using her to get to someone else. Her theory is frankly ridiculous and did not shine a favorable light upon her intelligence. She fared better with her work with Ceddy. The description of Ceddy matches the definition of autism. While the book never calls it this, I am very familiar with the disorder and recognized the hallmarks. Initially I feared my knowledge would interfere with my ability to enjoy the book. There is nothing worse than knowing a subject and stumbling across shoddy research in your reading. Fortunately, that is not the case here. The author was able to capture the behaviors and the challenges faced by caretakers almost perfectly. She did an excellent job of having Addie make a difference in the child’s life without having her cure him with love. Addie’s relationship with Ceddy is where her intelligence, compassion, and resilience shine through. I wish I could say the same of her relationship with Pearson.
Even after the initial big mis is clarified, Addie continues to stumble over trust issues with him. It doesn’t help that she takes love advice from her rather flighty, irrational old maid employer. As a result, this couple’s struggles in the dating department are made up entirely of imaginary problems, which gave me little hope for their HEA. Pearson was no real help; he didn’t ever deal head on with the issue. He kept proving himself for much of the book rather than reminding Addie her suspicions had proved unfounded before. I couldn’t help feeling that at some point in the future this behavior would lead to exhaustion and he would be too tired to deal with it anymore.
But if that relationship didn’t shine, the rest of the book did. Watching everyone deal with young Ceddy was fascinating. The treasure hunting proved interesting, though I longed for more detail. The secondary characters were all intriguing and added touches of liveliness, humour and humanity to the text.
This is an Inspirational and I would put the religion factor at about a five or six, meaning that God was mentioned often. Sometimes the subject was woven into the text, at other points it felt a bit more awkward. The author did avoid outright preaching, and took a kind, loving approach to her faith.
Overall, the story around the romance was the real star of the book. I would recommend it to fans of Inspirationals. There’s enough good here to raise it above the average offering.
I've been an avid reader since 2nd grade and discovered romance when my cousin lent me Lord of La Pampa by Kay Thorpe in 7th grade. I currently read approximately 150 books a year, comprised of a mix of Young Adult, romance, mystery, women's fiction, and science fiction/fantasy.
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Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.