Bayou Brides

Janet Barton, Kathleen Mille, Lynette Sowell, Janet Spaeth
Barbour Publishing, Inc. (2006)
ISBN 159789351X
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (10/06)

“Bayou Brides” tells the story of four generations of one family, living on the banks of the Bayou Teche in the heart of Cajun Country. The stories of their life, love and redemption are told in this inspirational romance.

“Capucine: Home to My Heart” by Janet Spaeth
Capucine knows she must be strong when the British tear her and her sister Aliette from their mother’s arms. Her heart is hardened and she vows to find her mother and “make the British pay for what they have done, I will never forget.”

Capucine remembers her mother quoting her scripture. “Where your treasure is there will be your heart also,” but she doesn’t truly understand the meaning behind the words. When Capucine and Michel LeBlanc paths cross he comes to love her but she is not sure she knows how to love. Writing a journal assists Capucine in sorting out her thoughts and in talking to the Lord. Through love, patience and God’s will, Michel teaches Capucine how to love and how to forgive.

This is a beautifully written love story. The characters are strong and well developed. The plot flows smoothly. The print is large and easy to read. The love story of Capucine and Michel is beautiful; it contains a purity that few stories contain today. But this goes beyond love story; this is a story of forgiveness.

“Joie de Vivre” by Lynette Sowell
The LeBlanc family has raised Jos’ee Broussard. She and Jacques always assumed they would marry, but when his oldest brother Edouard returns from the war scared both inside and out things change. Jos’ee has always expected she would marry Jacques and both she and Edouard are shocked when father announces the betrothal of Jos’ee and Edouard the eldest son. Edouard thinks he wants nothing more than to be left alone but finds that he’s beginning to care for Jos’ee. The journal Jos’ee finds written by Capucine helps her find strength to love Edouard even when he doesn’t want to be loved. It is only when he thinks he has lost her that he is willing to admit his love for her.

This is a beautifully written story and caught my interest from page one; I could hardly wait to turn the page to see if Jos’ee and Edouard could truly come to love each other. As the couple struggled to find love for each other I felt their pain. This is a wonderful story and my favorite of this anthology. The characters jump off the page and demand that you come to know them. This book teaches lessons of commitment and love.

“Language of Love” by Janet Lee Barton
“Language of Love” is a beautiful story written about a man that does not like change.
Nicholas LeBlanc has seen terrible things at war. He returns to a changed family, his papa has died, his sister in law is expecting and Suzette the new schoolteacher is living with his family. Suzette is teaching the children to speak English instead of Cajun. It seems like too many changes too fast. Nicholas knows Suzette has been a blessing to his family and when she asks him to help her interpret Cajun he knows she will be a blessing to him.

This story is beautifully written and the plot is well developed and flows smoothly. The characters are well defined. From the moment Nicholas arrives home you feel his discomfort and frustration, knowing he fought for his country and knowing that now his country is expecting his people to adapt their language. Maman is a strong woman suffering from the loss of a husband but finding strength for the Lord and those around her to go on. This is a story of change and learning to allow the Lord to lead our lives. I enjoyed this story tremendously.

“Dreams of Home” by Kathleen Miller
From the moment Lucy Webber and Justin LeBlanc meet they find each other of interest Lucy is a photographer and Justin is a professor. While photographing the old family cabin Lucy finds the journal from the seventeen hundreds, written by one of Justin’s ancestors. Capucine has written, “Life is full.” Both Lucy and Justin long to say those words. She has longed for family roots. “Justin has never used his heart for fearing losing it.” When Justin is offered the opportunity to write a book on the family’s Acadian cabin he asks Lucy to be the photographer. Together they discover that it is only with each other and the Lord that they will find that “life is full.”

The strong attraction between these two opposites is obvious from the beginning. The plot is good but it took me a little longer to get involved in this story. It is well written and the characters are well developed. Each character thinks they are longing for something different but in the end what they are longing for is each other.

The connecting threads woven in these stories are the cabin and the family connection. This is a beautiful anthology by four authors and four different stories each well written, each dealing with a different generation. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Psalm 92:1.” This is a family of generations built on faith in the Lord. I have truly enjoyed reading “Bayouo Brides.” It is with great joy that I highly recommend this book to those that enjoy good Christian romance.

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