Blog Tour: A Mending At The Edge

I recently finished all three books in the Change and Cherish series by Jane Kirkpatrick, the last of which is A Mending at the Edge.

These books follow Emma Wagner Giesy as she pushes against the constraints of her 1850s religious community, marries, heads west as part of a scouting group, and learns about herself and her faith through the trials and joys that follow.

Despite my best efforts, I have to say I did a lot of skimming. Part of the problem is that they employ the narrative device of switching point of view with each chapter - so while it's all in first person, it's in first person from the perspective a different person every time you turn around. For me, this is confusing and hard to follow - maybe I just have a short attention span? And beyond that...I found Emma to be incredibly annoying. I wanted to like her, she's the heroine of the stories after all, but I just couldn't.

My understanding is that Emma Giesy is a real person and these books, while fiction, are based on her life. It was that idea that drew me to them - the idea that historical fiction would incorporate biography, of sorts, was irresistible. And they are quite well written and the characters feel alive and you really do get a sense of their lives. I suspect that if you like westward expansion historical fiction, particularly that of the Janette Oke ilk, you would really enjoy this series as well.