TEST
Now, raise your hands. How many of you have met the man of your dreams, immediately fallen in love, been unconditionally loved in return, amiably decided to marry, were in total agreement about the future, and then have lived happily ever after? I think I see a couple of hands out there. The rest of you, what, you had to make adjustments? You wondered if he loved you as much as you loved him? You’d been hurt before, you say, and felt protective of your heart, just in case it didn’t work out? Again? Well, for all of us who took the harder road to romance, meet Edwina and Tom. They are us.
At the turn of the (last) century, women were just beginning to make their marks in places other than the home. Edwina Huntington has been to college, has earned an accounting degree, and has returned to her childhood home, Harmony, Montana, to open a finishing school for young ladies. Edwina wants more than to simply finish her students, she wants to polish them by preparing them, not just to be wives, but single-mothers, spinsters, and widows as well. One hundred years ago, a woman was only as rich, influential, comfortable, or secure as her father or husband. Take away the man, and the woman often became destitute or was forced to live out her days as a poor relation, unless she agreed to take the next man who came along in order to feed and clothe her children and herself. Edwina is fierce in her efforts both toward financial independence, and in preparing the girls of Harmony for the realities and eventualities of life outside their parents’ comfortable homes.
Tom Wolcott is a man’s man. He hunts, fishes, tracks, shoots, traps, and he has figured out he can make himself a real nice living by opening a sporting goods store and offering city-slickers from the East guided hunts and such into the rugged Montana wilderness. Having been dirt poor with little formal education, and stricken with a debilitating case of math anxiety, Tom’s determined never to be penniless again. Ever. What he lacks in education, he more than makes up for with a sharp business acumen, common sense, hard work, and decency. Any woman Tom marries will never have to work herself to death the way his own mother had done. He’s a traditionalist, and aims to stay that way. He wants to marry, and, handsome as he is, he could probably have any girl in Harmony. Problem is, he wants the feisty, independent, unattainable little lady right next door.
A quirk of fate has placed Edwina and Tom together in side-by-side business locations. The womanly woman and the manly man mix about as well as “mama’s most precious” Honey Tiger and sniffing, slobbering Barkly (her cat, his hound), but neither can deny the current of attraction that sizzles between them. The focus of this book is entirely on Edwina, Tom, and their relationship in all its tentative, joyous, angst-ridden, passionate(!), heart-breaking, heart-mending stages. It’s a rocky road to romance, but it’s filled with great humor, charm, intelligence, and love.
In a pivotal plot point, Edwina has made a “mistake” in her past (can anybody guess what it might be?) which she feels has ruined (key word here) her chances for marriage. She absolutely cannot get past this, even though Tom deals with it well enough. This could have gotten old, fast, but Ms. Holm has done such a good job developing Edwina’s history and personality, the reader understands completely why Edwina has accepted her role as a spinster who holds no hope of marriage. Edwina has been raised to believe that her moral lapse was so unredeemable, she has given up on ever hoping to marry. Sin and retribution. Crime and punishment. One false step and the game’s over, sister. The world of one hundred years ago was, indeed, that unforgiving. And Edwina has bought the whole package.
This story revisits an America long gone, the good stuff along with the bad, never to return. While the pacing of the story made the book run about fifty pages too long, I nonetheless enjoyed Ms. Holm’s very fine attention to period detail, the touching sweetness of two thoroughly appealing people finally finding love, and everything from chuckles to slap-your-thigh-laugh-out-loud humor, all of which brought the small town of Harmony, Montana to life. Delightful secondary characters (I got tears in my eyes over a very charming, old-fashioned marriage proposal) combine with Tom and Edwina to create an atmosphere that left me smiling page after page. I really enjoyed this book; it was like a sunny little gift right in the middle of winter.
Harmony is my first-ever Stef Ann Holm book; it certainly will not be my last.
Grade: B+
Book Type:
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 30/03/98
Publication Date: 1997
Recent Comments …
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.