Courage in the Storm
by Laurel Blount
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: April 25, 2023
Reviewed by Hellie
A survivor of an abusive childhood, Reuben understands fear better than most. He’ll do whatever it takes to help a terrified animal, but his compassion doesn’t extend to the church that turned a blind eye to his family’s suffering. Once he finishes this job, he’ll return to the Englisch world, putting his Amish heritage behind him forever.
As Miriam works alongside Reuben, battling the horse’s fear—and her own—an unexpected friendship blooms and deepens into romance. But the Amish faith that sustains her inspires only distrust in Reuben, and the Englisch world he’s chosen has already broken her heart once.
Falling in love was easy. But staying together will take all the courage they have.
First, you don’t need to have read the other two books in the series to bond with these characters or feel the story deeply. I imagine it may deepen the experience even more–and I completely plan to read the other two books as soon as I’m able–but this is my first book of Laurel Blount and it won’t be my last. Second, you’re going to spend a lot of time going, “The hero must look like Robert Redford.” Unless you’re a millennial and have no idea who I’m talking about. But if you ever saw a trailer (or the movie) of The Horse Whisperer, you know this is the plotline of this book. However, I never read that book nor saw that movie either–I just thought, “Gorgeous blonde guy with muscles and blue eyes…and crinkles at the corners. That’s Robert Redford, man.” Third, if you haven’t read the other two books in the series before reading this one, you’re going to want to read the others…because boy howdy, the world building for this series is wonderful.
The background of the stories is that there was a mass shooting by a white guy, who kills two Amish storeowners–the heroine’s parents–in the first of the series. Each of the books deals with the children/siblings who are recovering from their loss as well as the community where this evil happens. Additionally as the community is trying to grieve and move on, a movie company has come to the area to shoot a movie of the story…and bring up the emotions, fears, and anger in the community. The heroine of this book was the daughter who happened to witness the shootings, being she was in the store when it happened, but the shooter didn’t kill her. Miriam has not left the farm since the Incident. She’s terrified, broken, and unable to live her life normally–and worries she will never be able to do so ever again. She lives with her brother and sister-in-law, where she keeps chickens and makes quilts.
Reuben, our hero, has reluctantly returned to the Amish (of which he used to belong) after living for years as English. He is a wonder with horses; and he is repaying a favor to one of the few Amish men he respects, who helped him escape an intolerable situation when he was a child. He will need to spend several weeks on the farm in order to help a horse that had been in a carriage accident and is now terrified, broken, and unable to live a normal horse life. Within a few moments, Reuben realizes the key to curing the horse will involve Miriam, but first he will need to get Miriam to trust him–an Englisher.
If this all starts to sound impossible, it is. Reuben has very good reasons for not being Amish any longer–and does everything in his power to separate himself from his previous life. Miriam has very good reasons to distrust anyone not Amish and cannot help her fear around Reuben when he is every inch looking like the very thing she fears most. The horse…well…the horse only wants to protect Miriam and here we are in a triangle where no one seems able to bend to let the healing begin, but eventually it does. Laurel Blount does an amazing job of having three very distinct characters (and yes, the horse is one of these characters) with very jagged edges and very different experiences that all feel very similar in scope and insurmountable…and yet slowly, carefully, the pieces begin to line up and new growth begins to take shape, leaving the characters stronger than they were before.
Now obviously Amish romance has its own tension…there’s no kissing on the first page or heavy petting (as the old folks might say) and certainly no sex scenes, but there is sexual tension and the sexual tension feels heavy and wonderful, even if no one is so much as undoing a button. This may be Christian fiction, but it’s not do-gooder Christian fiction where you might be made to feel guilty about the sexual tension. It’s normal; it’s right for these characters; and we know they are going to get married first before they consummate it–and that’s okay. (I’ve read my share of Christian romance where it felt a bit on the self-righteous side and I didn’t care for it, but this book did not do that at all. Considering how difficult it is to write sex scenes and love stories because of the need of this balance, of highlighting the joy of love and lovemaking while also not coming across as preachy or moralistic, this book nailed it out of the park.)
This book hit all the right notes for me; and I hope it does for you as well. I would love it if these books were turned into Hallmark movies because the drama and sweetness of the stories feels right up Hallmark’s alley…and the Amish twist would give them something new to the whole small town Christmas trope they’ve done ad nauseam.
Oh, I almost forgot: my favorite character: the Bishop. The Amish Bishop…seriously…he’s like the main meddler in Fiddler on the Roof–and the book is worth reading for him alone. I now demand all my romance novels have a character like that guy. Go read it now.
