A Worthy Heart

A Worthy Heart is a Christian historical fiction novel by Susan Anne Mason, also the second book in the Courage to Dream series.

Desperately wanting to remove herself from an uncomfortable ended romance, Maggie is gleeful about leaving Ireland to visit her brother and his wife in America. Even if she does, of course, miss her family at home.

Hopeful to never have to return to Ireland, Maggie intends on digging her feet in and making something of herself in America – and then she meets Adam O’Leary.

Initially she thinks he is just an alluring stable hand, but soon enough she is told that he is the recently released from prison black sheep of the O’Leary family – and her brother Rylan’s brother-in-law. They encourage her to stay far away from him.

Yet there is something about him, and a bond that develops between the two, that is impossible for her to ignore – despite everyone’s best efforts to destroy it…

A Worthy Heart features many characters and is much more a family saga than a two-person romance set in 1914 New York City. Besides Maggie and Adam, we also follow Maggie’s brother Gabe and a society girl with nursing aspirations named Aurora.

Throughout A Worthy Heart there are a lot of switching viewpoints, providing plenty of story to tell. However, unfortunately, it did not catch my attention strongly enough to finish the novel.

I want to strongly express that I do not feel this is the book’s fault, but rather my own. I usually love family saga type novels – however with overtime at my job, schoolwork almost every other second of the day and a general lack of sleep: books can be harder to become enveloped in.

It’s a sad but truthful statement.

So, what I want to make sure and say is to READ IT FOR YOURSELF. Clearly we have a romance here, some family drama and plenty of room for redeeming oneself. Plus, for any of you Christian bibliophiles out there, the story is grounded in faith in God – always a good thing!

Give it a shot – sadly I cannot truly give an opinion, since I didn’t get far!