Making Waves

by Lorna Seilstad

Historical Romance / Inspirational

Release Date: September 2010

Publisher’s Synopsis:

Sun, summer, and a scrumptious sailing instructor. What more could a girl want?

When spunky Marguerite Westing discovers that her family will spend the summer of 1895 at Lake Manawa, Iowa, she couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s the perfect way to escape her agonizingly boring suitor, Roger Gordon. It’s also where she stumbles upon two new loves: sailing, and sailing instructor Trip Andrews.

But this summer of fun turns to turmoil as her father’s secrets threaten to ruin the family forever. Will free-spirited Marguerite marry Roger to save her father’s name and fortune? Or will she follow her heart–even if it means hurting the family she loves?

Full of sharp wit and blossoming romance, Making Waves will whisk you away to a breezy lakeside summer holiday.

My Thoughts:

I honestly thought this book was going to be dreadful. I regretted asking for it the moment I hit the ‘send’ button, and put off reading it over and over again until I couldn’t wait any longer.

But guess what? It turned out to be my favorite of the three books from Graf-Martin’s blog tour this past month. Don’t let that hideous cover fool you – there’s a fun story inside with a likeable heroine and a hero who has a hard time doing anything right, let alone come along to save the day!

In short, here are the things I loved about this book:

• a heroine with serious flaws who has a full family (no/dead missing mother or father!)
• a hero who is anything but, and as likable as he is, continues to make mistakes
• a villain who DOES NOT WANT TO RAPE THE MAIN CHARACTER
• a villain whose moral compass kicks in when things turn grim – he’s bad, but he’ll only take it so far and continues to act within his established character
• the heroine’s younger brother plays a large role and helps to save the day
• an unusual setting makes for a very different atmosphere

Mostly, I was impressed with the character development and how each character stuck to who they were – they didn’t act out of character or act in an uncharacteristically drastic fashion toward the end of the novel, which I find tends to happen in a lot of Christian historical fiction.

No, this was just a fun, fast-paced read with good characters, a forward-driving plot, and just a touch of the ‘inspirational’ side of things so as to fit in with the time period but not overwhelm the story. In fact, I was a bit surprised at that, because Revell (the publisher) tends to be the one with “preachier” books, but not so in this case!

Don’t let the unremarkable back cover copy (could they have made it sound any more cliché or dull?) or the front cover stop you from reading this one (honestly, did they really HAVE to choose the image where she’s making that expression?!?!). I’ll be passing this one on to others, and will gladly read more from this author in the future.

About the Author

A history buff, antique collector, and freelance graphic designer, Lorna Seilstad is the author of Making Waves and draws her setting from her home state of Iowa. A former high school English and journalism teacher, she has won several online writing awards and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.  Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".