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WORK TITLE: The Promise of Breeze Hill
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.pamhillman.com/
CITY:
STATE: MS
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | no2012038705 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/no2012038705 |
| HEADING: | Hillman, Pam |
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| 010 | __ |a no2012038705 |
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| 053 | _0 |a PS3608.I448 |
| 100 | 1_ |a Hillman, Pam |
| 670 | __ |a Stealing Jake, 2011: |b t.p. (Pam Hillman) |
| 670 | __ |a The Homestead Brides collection, 2015: |b t.p. (Pam Hillman) |
| 953 | __ |a xxoo |b xk17 (053) |
PERSONAL
Married Robert Hass (a poet).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author.
AWARDS:EPIC eBook Award; Award for Best Inspirational, Romance Writers of America; International Digital Award; Inspirational Readers Choice Award.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Pam Hillman is most well known for her contributions to the historical fiction genre. The majority of her works are faith-based, and feature Christian influences. Hillman has received numerous accolades for her work, including an EPIC eBook Award, an Inspirational Readers Choice Award, and several nominations for the Golden Heart, granted by Romance Writers of America.
The Promise of Breeze Hill
The Promise of Breeze Hill is part of a series of works, all of which are meant to take place in the community of Natchez, MS. In an interview featured on the Fiction Finder website, Hillman stated that the novel developed from her desire to craft a story about a man living under indentured servitude. The novel focuses on the relationship between Connor O’Shea and Isabella Bartholomew. Connor has recently been hired to work on the Breeze Hill property, which has fallen into disrepair and is owned by the family of Isabella. They are in need of talented craftsmen due to severe damages the home received from a catastrophic fire. Further misfortune continues to fall upon Isabella’s family, and she feels that she is the only one capable of fixing everything. Connor sees the opportunity as being extremely advantageous, believing the work will help him to earn enough money to help his brothers immigrate to the United States as he has. However, Nolan doesn’t expect the Breeze Hill estate to be in such poor condition as he is tasked with handling. The more he involves himself with the situation, the more he begins to suspect that there is far more to the story. What’s more is he doesn’t expect to fall in love with Isabella in the process of assisting her. Isabella, in the meantime, must put up with the advances of Nolan Braxton, a young man who lives near the Breeze Hill estate and whose feelings for Isabella may not be entirely pure. Connor resorts to watching the relationship between Nolan and Isabella unfold, as he believes a relationship between Isabella and himself would never work out. Isabella happens to return Connor’s feelings, but cannot truly reciprocate out of duty to her family and the estate. She worries that one wrong move could cause her to have to relinquish the estate, tarnishing her family’s legacy. She sees Nolan as a way to preserve Breeze Hill, due to his power and prestige, and begins resolving to marry him—even if that means burying her real thoughts and emotions. It is up to Connor to realize the truth about Nolan and try to help Isabella retain her birthright before it is too late. In the meantime, Connor and Isabella must also work together to keep the estate in working order, building the estate back up from its ruins and turning it back into the thriving business it once was. One Publishers Weekly contributor remarked: “Hillman breezily weaves together colorful details, romantic tensions, and suspenseful plotting in this fun historical romance.” A writer on the Books and Biscuits Blog said: “Fans of Ms. Hillman’s previous works will likely enjoy reading The Promise of Breeze Hill.” They added: “Additionally, readers who appreciate unique examples of historical Christian fiction will find this story to be well worth reading.” Library Journal reviewer Christine Sharbrough commented that the book “effectively mixes intrigue and suspense with a healthy dose of romance and historical details.”
Claiming Mariah
Claiming Mariah is another of Hillman’s novels. It centers on titular protagonist, a young woman by the name of Mariah Malone. Mariah is the sole manager of a once prosperous ranch, which belongs to her father. Now that he is ill, and the rest of Mariah’s family has either scattered elsewhere across the country or is incapable of helping out, Mariah finds herself struggling to shoulder the workload on her own. Her situation only seems to worsen once her father passes away. Mariah learns of a debt between another man and her father—one that threatens her ability to keep and maintain the ranch. She reaches out to the man her father wronged as a means of fulfilling his one final wish, only to come away fruitless. She soon encounters a stranger who happens to be descended from the man her father used to work with and so deeply betrayed, and he wants stronger retribution than any simple apology. He seeks to snatch the ranch from Mariah’s hands, an act that will leave her homeless and broken. Mariah must find a way to preserve her home, her well being, and her faith during this trying time.
Elaine Marie Cooper, a writer on the Author Culture website, remarked: “Claiming Mariah is such a well-crafted tale of the Old West that I often felt as if I was watching a movie.” She added: “Hillman’s descriptions are intricately detailed: I could practically feel the heat, smell the hay, and hear the squeaking of leather saddles.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, June 26, 2017, review of The Promise of Breeze Hill, p. 165.
ONLINE
Author Culture, http://authorculture.blogspot.com/ (January 11, 2013), Elaine Marie Cooper, review of Claiming Mariah.
Blue Flower Arts, http://blueflowerarts.com/ (April 10, 2018), author profile.
The Books and Biscuits Blog, http://booksandbiscuits.com/ (August 15, 2017), review of The Promise of Breeze Hill.
Fiction Finder, https://www.fictionfinder.com/ (August 28, 2017), Lisa Bartelt, author interview.
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (March 26, 2018), B.J. Sedlock, review of The Promise of Breeze Hill.
Library Journal, https://reviews.libraryjournal.com/ (September 6, 2017), Christine Sharbrough, review of The Promise of Breeze Hill.
Pam Hillman Website, http://www.pamhillman.com (April 10, 2018), author profile.
CBA Bestselling author Pam Hillman writes Historical Christian fiction set in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Born east of the Mississippi and a hundred years too late, Pam still boasts of wrangling calves, milking cows and putting up hay, first as a child, and later with her own personal hero, Iran, on their family farm in Mississippi.
A voracious reader as a child, Pam especially enjoyed stories involving the great Westward expansion, and television shows such as Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, and Gunsmoke. The western writer, Louis L’Amour, kept Pam mesmerized with his tales of cowboys and Indians, mountain men and outlaws, prim schoolteachers, hot dry deserts, and boom towns.
Pam’s life in the country and her love of the old west bring authenticity to her work and depth to her characters, something that has been recognized many times in the industry through writer’s awards.
Her work has placed in dozens of writer’s contests, including being a four-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist with Claiming Mariah, her second novel, winning the Award for Best Inspirational. Other awards include the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, International Digital Award, and the EPIC eBook Award.
Pam lives in Mississippi with her husband and family.
Brenda Hillman
Award-winning Poet
Griffin Poetry Prize-winner
Non-violent Activist
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“Each poem that Hillman writes creates its own experimental configuration, within which the phrase swerves and discombobulates…She writes as if the lyric poem had a political calling.” —Marjorie Welish
“I know that the truths Hillman expresses enter as the truths of dreams can enter, if I let them, catching me off guard and realigning what I thought I knew and how I thought I’d come to know it.” —Camille T. Dungy
“Hillman reminds us that one of the functions of art is to disturb: to startle us out of the ossified, inflexible forms of the routine and conventional. In this, Hillman has a particularly American genius.”—Boston Review
“Hillman’s work will find a ready audience in poets of her own generation, as well as those younger poets following in her footsteps, in whose hands the category of ‘ecopoetry’ has exploded, sporelike, into countless unnamed species.” —Publisher’s Weekly
Brenda Hillman has published ten collections of poetry, all from Wesleyan University Press. In her five most recent collections, Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days (2018); Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire (2013); Practical Water (2009), Pieces of Air in the Epic (2005), and Cascadia (2001), each book receives her ‘sustained attention’ to one the natural elements. A Publishers Weekly starred review of Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days elucidates, “Having written four previous books each addressing one of the four traditional elements of nature, here she considers wood as a fifth element, making her hieroglyphic way through ‘forests of grief’ as might one of the book’s beloved beetles, ‘pressing/ their whole jeweled bodies/ in the beauty of the bark.’ Neither simply empirical nor transcendental, Hillman’s poetry takes what she calls ‘woodmind’—a sort of deep attention to natural processes—and applies it to notions of human action, recollection, imagination, and craft.”
Practical Water won the LA Times Book Award for Poetry. Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire received the International Griffin Poetry Prize for 2014, as well as the Northern California Book Award for Poetry and the California Book Award Gold Medal in Poetry. Dean Rader wrote, “Seasonal Works With Letters On Fire is a profoundly humane work. In language that moves from the chatty to the experimental to the heightened to the rhetorical, Hillman shows us once again that poetry is itself a tireless worker, always on our behalf.”
Hillman is also the author of the collections Loose Sugar (1997), Bright Existence (1993), Death Tractates (1992), Fortress (1989), and White Dress (1985), and three chapbooks Coffee, 3 A.M. (Penumbra Press, 1982), Autumn Sojourn (Em Press, 1995), and The Firecage (a+bend press, 2000). Hillman has edited an edition of Emily Dickinson’s poetry for Shambhala Publications, and, with Patricia Dienstfrey, co-edited The Grand Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood (2003). She co-translated, with Diallah Haidar, Poems from Above the Hill: Selected Poems of Ashur Etwebi, one of Libya’s most significant poets. In 2010 she co-translated Jeongrye Choi’s book of poems, Instances, released by Parlor Press. With Helen Hillman and Sebastião Macedo, she has translated At Your Feet by Brazilian poet Ana Cristina Cesar, to be published by Parlor Press/Free Verse Editions in 2018.
In 2016 she was named Academy of American Poets Chancellor. Among other awards Hillman has received are the 2012 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the 2005 William Carlos Williams Prize for poetry, and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Included in their list of “50 of the Most Inspiring Authors in the World,” Poets & Writers states, “[Hillman] reminds us that the language we use when ordering a sandwich is also the language we use to make art. Her environmental concerns prove writers can offer more than just aesthetic pleasure.” Hillman has been increasingly interested in the innovative and experimental lyric traditions, particularly in how the Romantic concepts of nature and spirit have manifested in contemporary ecological and political poetry. In her essay entitled “Split, Spark, and Space,” Hillman writes about the emergence of different kinds of lyric impulses in her writing: “The sense of a single ‘voice’ in poetry grew to include polyphonies, oddly collective dictations, and the process of writing itself. This happened in part because of a rediscovered interest in esoteric western tradition and in part because I came to a community of women who were writing in exploratory forms….A poetic method which had heretofore been based on waiting for insight suddenly had to accommodate process, and indeterminate physics, a philosophy of detached looking.”
Hillman is the Olivia Filippi Professor of Poetry at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California, where she teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs. She is also a member of the permanent faculties of Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and of Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Hillman is also involved in non-violent activism for social and environmental justice. She is married to poet Robert Hass.
Brenda Hillman’s website
The Promise of Breeze Hill
Publishers Weekly.
264.26 (June 26, 2017): p165. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Promise of Breeze Hill
Pam Hillman. Tyndale, $14.99 trade paper (413p) ISBN 978-1-4964-1592-9
Hillman (Claiming Mariah) sets this eloquent novel in volatile 18th-century Natchez, Miss. It is 1791, and Connor O'Shea, a highly skilled carpenter, has indentured himself to a local property owner to pay for his four brothers' passage to America from Ireland. His new employer is Isabella Bartholomew, the only daughter of Breeze Hill plantation owner Master Bartholomew. After a house fire severely damaged the plantation and other disasters befell the family, Isabella is determined to get everything back to peak condition, and she believes Connor is perfect for the job. When they arrive at Breeze Hill, Connor observes a dearth of help to run such a vast property; he wonders if the family's financial troubles run deeper than Isabella let on and whether she can be trusted to live up to her end of the bargain. The trials and tribulations of keeping the business afloat combine with predictable romantic sparks and the suspicion there might be someone intent on sabotaging the plantation. Hillman breezily weaves together colorful details, romantic tensions, and suspenseful plotting in this fun historical romance. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Promise of Breeze Hill." Publishers Weekly, 26 June 2017, p. 165. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497444387/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=a71c206f. Accessed 25 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497444387
1 of 1 3/25/18, 7:18 PM
Review: The Promise of Breeze Hill – Pam Hillman
Pam Hillman. The Promise of Breeze Hill. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2017.
I always enjoy trying new author, new series, and stories that explore new places and historical periods. Fortunately, Pam Hillman’s latest release fits all of these criteria.
The Promise of Breeze Hill begins Ms. Hillman’s Natchez Trace series, set in Natchez, Mississippi, in the late eighteenth century. Connor O’Shea intends to indenture himself and his skills as a carpenter to bring his brothers to America from Ireland. Without the necessary skilled labor to rebuild her father’s plantation, Isabella Bartholomew purchases Connor’s indenture, counting on a successful harvest to provide the necessary funds to carry out her side of the agreement. Together, Isabella and Connor work toward rebuilding Breeze Hill Plantation in the face of an unknown threat that has led to the loss of Isabella’s brother, the destruction of part of the plantation house, and left her father severely injured. As the threats continue, Isabella must choose between marrying a wealthy neighbor or following her heart, as she hopes that one path may lead to the peace and reassurance that she has been looking for all of along.
Set in the late eighteenth century, The Promise of Breeze Hill offers a fascinating plot unique to its location and period. Ms. Hillman presents a compelling beginning to her Natchez Trace series.
Overall, I quite enjoyed reading The Promise of Breeze Hill. Although I am otherwise unfamiliar with Ms. Hillman’s work, this story set itself apart from many other concepts frequently found in the historical Christian fiction genre. I would have liked to see a little more context, possibly in the form of an author’s note at the beginning of the book, to explain more about the place and period of the book, as I could see quite a few readers being completely unfamiliar with this setting. However, readers will find that it is well worth reading the book, especially to learn about the mixture of cultures and influences in the Netchez area during the late eighteenth century. Additionally, I really enjoyed seeing a significant Christian component in this novel. In general, I thought the book (at least in its ARC form) would have benefited from some additional editing, but I’m sure that a significant amount of those errors would have been fixed by the time of the novel’s official release. Based on the unique storyline and characters of this novel, I am looking forward to seeing where Ms. Hillman takes this series next.
Fans of Ms. Hillman’s previous works will likely enjoy reading The Promise of Breeze Hill. Additionally, readers who appreciate unique examples of historical Christian fiction will find this story to be well worth reading.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Tyndale House Publishers for an advanced copy of The Promise of Breeze Hill!
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Friday, January 11, 2013
Book Review: Claiming Mariah by Pam Hillman
Claiming Mariah is one of those novels that grabs your heart and does not let go. Even after ending the last page, I pressed that lever on my e-reader, hoping for more. Hillman has a gift of creating characters that feel like your friends, as she spins this romantic tale amidst the gritty, western scenery of Wyoming Territory in 1882.
The heroine, Mariah Malone, has been struggling to keep her family’s cattle ranch above water financially since her father became ill. When the rancher died following that lengthy illness, Mariah was left alone to support her grandmother, her sister away at school, and the ranch that just seemed to keep losing money year after year.
Just before her father died, Mariah carried another burden as well—discovering her father had swindled a business partner years ago. On his deathbed he told Mariah he wanted to ask the man’s forgiveness. In an effort to honor her father and hopefully make amends, she sends a letter to his former adversary. But it is too little, too late. Her attempts to rectify the situation only bring the man’s sons to her doorstep, demanding justice—as well as ownership of the ranch. Even worse, the oldest brother, Slade, informs Mariah that her father is responsible for his father’s death. The humiliation of her parent’s past sends Mariah into an emotional and spiritual tailspin.
She faces leaving the only home she has ever known. Has God deserted her as well as her family?
Claiming Mariah is such a well-crafted tale of the Old West that I often felt as if I was watching a movie. Hillman’s descriptions are intricately detailed: I could practically feel the heat, smell the hay, and hear the squeaking of leather saddles. The author’s palette of words paints with vivid strokes.
The romance between the characters is a painstaking journey of forgiveness and overcoming emotional and spiritual obstacles. And the filament of faith and healing weaves throughout, not just with the main characters, but with the cast of personalities both young and old that fill out this novel. Like thread woven on linen, it becomes a memorable piece of artistry that leaves me hankering for more. I earnestly hopes this is the first novel in a series.
Author Bio:
Pam Hillman was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn’t afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove the Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn’t mind raking. Raking hay doesn’t take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that’s the kind of life every girl should dream of! Claiming Mariah is her second novel and was released on January 1, 2013. Her digital books are published through Tyndale House. www.pamhillman.com
From Reviewer Elaine Marie Cooper: I’ll ignore the fact that author Pam Hillman chose the name “Cooper” for the antagonist in Claiming Mariah. The wonderful protagonists in this gripping read of the Old West more than make up for this apparent lapse of judgment on Hillman’s part. :)
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CBA bestselling-author, Pam Hillman, was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two-cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110.
Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought, so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of.
Visit Pam Hillman online
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The Promise of Breeze Hill
Anxious for his brothers to join him on the rugged frontier along the Mississippi River, Connor O’Shea has no choice but to indenture himself as a carpenter in exchange for their passage from Ireland. But when he’s sold to Isabella Bartholomew of Breeze Hill Plantation, Connor fears he’ll repeat past mistakes and vows not to be tempted by the lovely lady.
The responsibilities of running Breeze Hill have fallen on Isabella’s shoulders after her brother was found dead in the swamps along the Natchez Trace and a suspicious fire devastated their crops, almost destroyed their home, and left her father seriously injured. Even with Connor’s help, Isabella fears she’ll lose her family’s plantation. Despite her growing feelings for the handsome Irish carpenter, she seriously considers accepting her wealthy and influential neighbor’s proposal of marriage.
Soon, though, Connor realizes someone is out to eliminate the Bartholomew family. Can he set aside his own feelings to keep Isabella safe?
ISBN: 1496415922
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
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Interview with Pam Hillman
By Lisa Bartelt - August 28, 2017
Pam Hillman used to send ACFW newsletters through the mail to a handful of members, so when she tells pre-published authors to find a support group for their writing, she knows whereof she speaks. She can’t imagine her writing career without a group like ACFW. Something else Pam can’t live without when she’s writing? Keep reading to find out!
* * * * *
Hi Pam! Tell us about the setting of your new novel. I can't recall reading any historical fiction set in Mississippi. What will readers be surprised to discover? And being a resident of the state, what do you love about it?
I think readers will be surprised that the French, British, and the Spanish all held the territory at various times in the 18th century. I was born and raised in Mississippi, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I love that we’re mostly real. You get what you see.
Where did the inspiration for this story come from?
Initially, the idea was to write about a male indentured servant. But that’s not enough to keep a reader engaged for a whole book, so one thing led to another, and here we are.
What draws you to this time period?
Indentured servitude for starters, and I had this narrow window of time where highwaymen plied the Natchez Trace, and I wanted to capitalize on that. Merchants and farmers floated their goods down the Mississippi River to Natchez and New Orleans, then walked back up the Natchez Trace, their pockets full from the sale of their goods. Bands of unscrupulous and violent highwaymen lay in wait for unsuspecting travelers.
Tell us what a typical day is like for you. (And if there's no such thing, just give us a glimpse of one day in your life.)
A typical writing day starts off with early morning coffee while I check email, then an hour of writing, an hour of editing, and then an hour of working on social media, all before lunch. I’m not sure if this is the exact truth or a pipe dream, but it sure sounds good to be so productive.
When did you start writing? How would you describe your journey to publication?
I’ve been writing most of my life, but I seriously started pursuing publication a little over 23 years ago. Over the years I’ve developed relationships with industry professionals and other writers, learning and improving my craft a bit at a time.
Being chosen as one of the launch authors for Tyndale’s Digital First Initiative was a combination of having a completed manuscript ready to go at the exact time Tyndale started looking for debut authors to launch the program. When my agent, Steve Laube, asked if I was interested in submitting, I didn’t hesitate. And the rest is history.
What advice would you give to unpublished/aspiring authors?
Never give up. Pay your dues, and find a group of people who support you 100 percent. I found that group in the Seekers (www.seekerville.blogspot.com) and, on a broader scale, ACFW.
What do you think makes your style of storytelling unique?
I’m not sure. When I start telling something, my adult kids give me that look that says, “Get to the POINT already.” They say that I go on and on way too long. I once had an editor (back while I was still unpublished) decline a manuscript with the reason that everything took too long to happen.
But everyone doesn’t see all the details as taking too long or excessively boring. A recent reviewer posted, “The strength of Hillman's writing lies in her description. She uses her words well, proficiently painting scenes and scenarios that are easy to imagine in vivid detail.”
I’ll take that as a compliment.
What is something surprising you've learned or discovered in your research, either for this book or other books?
One surprising thing I learned about indentured servitude was that generally there was a contract between the master and the servant and the servants had more rights than I realized. Of course, there were unscrupulous masters and incorrigible servants, but by-and-large, it was in the interest of both parties to make the agreement work.
Once an indentured servant served his term (or was released for whatever reason), he/she had all the rights of the freemen/women of the community. There was no stigma attached to having been an indentured servant in colonial America.
Finish this sentence: When I'm writing, one thing I can't live without is _______.
Sleep.
I suppose I should explain, huh? Seriously, if I’m on a tight deadline, I need a power nap every few hours, then I’m good to go for another 3-4 hour stretch. Some authors can write for hours and hours on end. But after 3-4 hours of intense writing, I’m drained.
I’ll take a power nap over a snack or exercise regimen any day.
What are you working on next?
I’m deep in the final edits on The Road to Magnolia Glen (working title), book #2 in the Natchez Trace Novel series. It features Connor’s younger brother, Quinn O’Shea, and Kiera Young. Quinn is the second O’Shea and has spent his youth raising his younger brothers back home in Ireland. He’s heartily sick of family and just wants to turn all responsibility over to his older brother as soon as he reaches Natchez. Kiera Young also has the care of two younger sisters, but instead of wanting to abdicate responsibility for them, she embraces it. But after Quinn rescues Kiera and her sisters from a brothel, he finds himself suddenly responsible for three females in addition to his younger brothers. And things go downhill from there. The Road to Magnolia Glen should be out in the summer of 2018.
Any parting words?
I’ve been involved with ACFW in one capacity or another from the beginning. Originally, I was the newsletter editor and snail-mailed the newsletter to the handful of members. Later, I became the book club coordinator, then was elected as treasurer.
I can’t imagine what my life — or my writing career — would look like without the lifelong friends I’ve made online and at the annual conference. Seriously, I don’t think I would be published today without ACFW.
________________________________
Lisa Bartelt is a child of the flatlands fulfilling her dream of living near mountains in Pennsylvania. She loves reading, writing and listening to stories—true ones, made-up ones and the ones in between—preferably with a cup of coffee in hand. Wife, mom of two, writer, ordinary girl, Lisa blogs about books, faith, family and the unexpected turns of life at http://lisabartelt.com.
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Hillman, Pam. The Promise of Breeze Hill. Tyndale. (Natchez Trace, Bk. 1). Aug. 2017. 393p. ISBN 9781496415929. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9781496425584. CF
In 1791, Connor O’Shea arrives in Natchez, MS, from Ireland as an indentured servant. But his plan to send for his four brothers at the end of his term is thwarted by the untimely death of his master and the purchase of his papers by Isabella Bartholomew, who seeks a carpenter to help rebuild a burned wing of her family’s plantation home, Breeze Hill. Neighbor Nolan James Braxton is courting Isabella, yet his intentions are anything but honest. Although Isabella and Connor develop feelings for each other, she needs to keep the plantation running and seriously considers Nolan’s proposal. It is not long before Connor realizes that someone is trying to take over Breeze Hill and Isabella’s life. VERDICT Though some readers may have concerns about a relationship between characters with such a power imbalance, Hillman’s (Claiming Mariah) series launch set in antebellum Mississippi effectively mixes intrigue and suspense with a healthy dose of romance and historical details.
The Promise of Breeze Hill
By Pam Hillman
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In 1791, Isabella Bartholomew’s family takes on Connor O’Shea as an indentured servant to rebuild the family home, Breeze Hill, on the Natchez Trace. The house had been damaged by fire and Isabella’s injured father can’t work. Connor agrees to the indenture so he can work towards bringing his brothers over from Ireland. He starts to have feelings for Isabella but is reluctant to act because he thinks she’s above him in station. Isabella is courted by neighbor Nolan Braxton, who, unbeknownst to the Bartholomews, has an eye to acquiring Breeze Hill for himself.
The religious content is not heavy in this inspirational novel. Hillman makes a good choice of giving Connor a painful past with an aristocratic woman back in Ireland as a believable reason for his reluctance to get involved with Isabella. However, the characters careen from one incident to the next, enough that I thought the story would benefit from less action and a bit more description and character development. Braxton as the villain is rather one-dimensional, and a major event in the denouement teeters perilously close to being a deus ex machina ending. It has good points, but on the whole, I can’t recommend the book.
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