Book Review: Into The Whirlwind

Author: Elizabeth Camden
Publication Date: August 1, 2013
Publisher: Bethany House

After her father's death, Mollie Knox takes over his watchmaking company and uses her head for business to solidify the good name of the 57th Illinois Watch Company. Her future looks bright until the night her beloved city is destroyed in the legendary Great Chicago Fire. With her world crumbling around her, Molly must do whatever it takes to save her company in the aftermath of the devastating fire.

Zack Kazmarek is an influential attorney with powerful ties to the political, mercantile, and ethnic roots of Chicago. His only weakness is Mollie Knox, a woman who has always been just beyond his reach. However, all bets are off after the fire destroys Chicago, and Mollie is in desperate need of assistance. Just as Zack finally begins to pursue the woman he loves, competition arises in the form of a hero from her past who can provide the help she needs to rise from the ashes.

While Mollie struggles to rebuild, the two men battle for her heart. One has always loved her, but the other has the power to save her. In the race to rebuild the city, can she survive with her business and her heart intact?

The city Mollie loved so well was being destroyed as flames engulfed buildings, weakening them until they collapsed into piles of rubble, blocking escape routes and sending throngs of people into greater panic. By tomorrow, Chicago would be nothing more than a smoldering ruin.

Mollie would ensure these people would have employment for as long as they kept turning out the world’s most beautiful timepieces.

For above all else, Mollie feared anything that would bring change into her carefully crafted, perfect life.

When we first meet Mollie Knox, her entire world has just gone up in smoke, literally. The Chicago Fire of 1871 is the perfect setting for this book because it frames Mollie’s life and the struggles she faces every day. Mollie has recently inherited her father’s Illinois Watch Company and seems to be managing it just fine three years after his death. Not long after starting the book readers will be introduced to Zack Kazmarek, who jumps in to help save Mollie’s life just in time. Zack has longed for more than a business relationship with Mollie for quite some time, but after this fire has more than destroyed her father’s legacy, she has more on her mind that falling in love.

It is apparent very early on how much compassion and love Mollie has, especially for all the veterans that work for her. Her father, also a veteran of the war, wanted there to always be a job and a paycheck for any veteran in his employ. Mollie has tried to maintain that same mentality, and knows that many families are depending on her to rebuild the company and get things flowing successfully again. Mollie is a character that is defying the odds for women in this time. She is a wonderful businesswoman, who is both smart and classy. I admired Mollie from the first page onward. She really has her wits about her, and she is not a character that will have you shaking your head, but rather a character that makes you wonder how you can be more like them!

This is my second book by Elizabeth Camden, and I will say that this is my favorite of the two! I absolutely loved this book and the literal “whirlwind” that Mollie’s life becomes and that readers get to experience alongside her. I flew this book in no time and was ready for more. Zack wasn’t always my favorite character, but he started to grow on me more towards the end. Mollie was the highlight of this book, and I loved the respect that she still carried for her father long after he had passed. She was definitely a role model for me and a joy to read about!

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Bethany House in exchange for my honest review***