Book Review: A Place In His Heart

Author: Rebecca DeMarino

Publication Date: June 3, 2014

Publisher: Revell

Series: The Southold Chronicles # 1

Anglican Mary Langton longs to marry for love. Puritan Barnabas Horton is still in love with his deceased wife and needs only a mother for his two young sons. And yet these two very different people with very different expectations will take a leap of faith, wed, and then embark on a life-changing journey across the ocean to the Colonies. Along the way, each must learn to live in harmony, to wait on God, and to recognize true love where they least expect to find it.

This heartfelt tale of love and devotion is based on debut author Rebecca DeMarino’s own ancestors, who came to Long Island in the mid-1600s to establish a life–and a legacy–in the New World.

“Besides, many women who marry for the social status fall in love later. It happens all the time.”

“God bless Father, God bless Joseph, and God bless Mother, who is in heaven.”

I cannot go on alone. Please, Lord, be with me.

This was an awesome debut novel! I have really been in the mood for a historical fiction novel lately, but I often find myself straying from them because they are so large and filled with excessive information that is not always needed. Every so often I run across a book that will not allow me to put it down. There is just something about it that keeps me pulled in from the first page. This was one of those books! We follow Mary and Barnabas who do not come together like most married couples. Mary is trying to escape a man that her father wishes for her to marry, and Barnabas is a widower, who cannot stop grieving for his dead wife, with two small boys in desperate need of a mother, thus their story begins.

Mary and Barnabas were portrayed very realistically and this was a difficult task to do because both character have experienced so many trials and disappointments, but DeMarino allows the reader to experience all of their sufferings right along with them. Because of their portrayal, I felt that I really knew these characters and I was even arguing with them several times while reading. I wanted to reach out and slap Barney every once in a while; I love when characters are so well written that I feel like I can argue with them.

Rebecca DeMarino wrote this book somewhat based on the lives of her ninth great-grandmother and grandfather. She adds pieces of her own imagination, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this book was loosely based on DeMarino’s own family history. She focuses on the idea and theme that God is faithful and the message was wonderfully portrayed and very obvious in the lives of the character. I am looking forward to more in this series.

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