A Promise for Ellie
by Lauraine Snelling
Young love! Is there anything better in this life? Is there anything more frustrating? This book is a story about young love shared by Andrew Bjorklund and Ellie Wold. The setting is North Dakota in the year 1900. As the book starts we find Andrew still living with his parents in Blessing, North Datoka. He’s making plans to build a barn and a house for his soon to be bride, Ellie. She’s now living in Grafton which is a half a day’s ride by horse or buggy. Her father had
moved the family there after a horrible flood. He’s a carpenter by trade and needed the assurance that his furniture won’t be ruined by another flood. They’ve been there for two years now. She is about to head back to Blessing. She’d been given permission to graduate with her former classmates.
The plan is for both Ellie and Andrew to graduate, then spend the next month building a barn and the house that Andrew has purchased from Sears. It was due to arrive by train any day. Before Ellie can get back to Blessing, Andrew receives news that the house is going to be late. Andrew’s father Haaken sees this as a sign that Andrew and Ellie should postpone their wedding for a few months. Andrew has never disobeyed his father before in his life, but how could his father ask such a thing of him?
The author does an amazing job of letting the reader see into the hearts of all the main characters. You’re not only told exactly what the characters are thinking, but how they’re praying. You see how each one talks to the Lord and how each struggles daily with life and their faith. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that I’ve known characters so well before. And I’m always fascinated when books take place during a different time. As I read this book I could really feel what it would have been like to live back in 1900′s. The author goes into detail not only about all the chores that had to be done every day, but she even goes into what the field of medicine was like at the time.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone of any age.
Reviewed by Lynn Worley
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