The Beat Of My Heart

Minding The Light by Suzanne Woods Fisher is an epic Christian historical novel with its dual timeline and its continuation of the story of Mary Coffin and her ancestors.

Once again I was completely engrossed in this second book of the Nantucket Legacy series. Big hearts that see people reigned. Family is important for some, but for others they prefer to try to rule the roost. “She was quite fond of her grudges, nursing them like little pets.” Grudges change us from open hearted to closed fisted and are best avoided.

Life was hard. People died. She “was gone from this earth, yet life carried on as if it were an ordinary day.” We feel that the world should stop turning when a loved one dies, but that is never the case.

There is the theme of slavery. No man should be kept by another nor judged by his skin colour. Some unscrupulous bounty hunters only see the colour of the money. Other people see people to love, protect and cherish. The Quakers spoke of equality but practiced segregation. “They [the Negro] deserved God’s love but not social equality with their white neighbours.”

God longs for us all to know Him. When we have faith it displaces our fear. We get a peace that passes all understanding. “The presence… it took away my fear.”

Nantucket was a community built on whaling. It was a hard life but necessary for survival. There were still pockets of the poor. Big hearted sisters opened a cent school to educate those less fortunate. With education comes freedom.

Minding The Light is partly based on fact, so the reader is educated as well as being entertained. I am loving these epic tales from Suzanne Woods fisher and cannot get enough of them.

A marvellous read.

I received this book for free from Net Galley. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON