Love's Awakening Review!!!

*Love's Awakening by Laura Frantz

+Laura Frantz 

Book Description:
Ellie Ballantyne, youngest child of Silas and Eden, has left finishing school. But back at her family home in Pittsburgh, Ellie finds that her parents are away on a long trip and her siblings don't seem to want her to stay. When she opens a day school for young ladies, she begins tutoring the incorrigible daughter of the enemy Turlock clan. The Turlocks are slaveholders and whiskey magnates, envious of the powerful Ballantynes and suspicious of their abolitionist leanings. As Ellie becomes increasingly tangled with the Turlocks, she finds herself falling in love with an impossible future--and Jack Turlock, a young man striving to free himself from his family's violent legacy. How can she betray her family and side with the enemy? And will Jack ever allow her into his world?

My Opinion:
I absolutely LOVE it!!!  This is the first book from Laura that I've had the opportunity to read.  I loved it and I love her!  Laura's way of writing is beautiful and riveting!  From the prologue I was intrigued if not a little "what is going on!?" :D  I think if I had read the first in the series I would have known better what was going on.  Anyway Laura caught me up and filled me in as the book progressed.  Starting out with a bang and throwing me right into the lives of the characters right out of the gate!  I absolutely LOVE the Ballantyne family as well as the other characters and the ways they grow within the story!  Parts broke my heart and then others stitched it back together. :)  I found the historical parts wonderfully interesting, the over all conflict capturing, and I really enjoyed how music and the instruments Laura chose are entwined throughout.  BUT OH THAT ENDING!!!  Totally blew me out of the water with the cliff hanger and I can't WAIT for  the next book  I did have a problem with some of the Scottish words.  I loved them being in the book I just wish there had been a dictionary in the front or back of the book.  Some of the words I was able to figure out as I read on, some where close enough to English I could figure them out, but some had me stumped.  There are quotations before every chapter which I loved, but I wish, because of the font, they were a little bit bigger.  Sometimes I had to re-read them a few times, with my nose on the page, to make out all the words (but that could just be my bad eyes...).  Anyway I really enjoyed the sayings and quotations and I feel they added to the story, wrapping in with each chapter!  The adventure is great, the danger raises the suspense to the ceiling, and love ties it all together.  I laughed, I cried, and I even cheered a time or two (quietly and privately because people give me strange looks when I do those things in public).  This is a must read and can not be missed! 

The soundtrack.  Music is entwined in this book so much that it was so hard for me to narrow it down.  So this soundtracks list is long:
"Sonata ('Lesson') No. 1 in D major (1761), III Gavotta" by Edward Witsenburg,
"Scots March and Strathspeys: The 91st at Modder River/Strathspey/Lime Hill" by Kathleen Collins, 
"Strathspey/Reel Set (Iron Man to Spoot O' Skerry)" by Jo Morrison,
"Irish Fiddle Waltz" by Best of the Fiddle,
"Pride Of Erin Waltz: The Wind On The Heath, The Rosebud Of Allenvale, Farewell To Scotland" by Caledonian Fiddle Orchestra In Concert,
"Swallow Tail Jig" by Best of the Fiddle,
"Celtic Fiddle Jig" by Best of the Fiddle,
"Celtic Reel (Scottish Wedding Party Mix)" by The MacDonald Bros,
"Scottish Reel" by The Scottish Bagpipes Highland Pipes,
"J.S. Bach: Adagio - Adagio" by The Academy of Ancient Music,
"'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus" by Joyful Harps,
"Rock of Ages" by Joyful Harps

Psalm 125:1

~ASC

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*I received this book from Revell for the purpose of giving an honest review.  This in no was affected my opinion and the above it how I truly fell about Love's Awakening. ~ASC