Review: Daughters of Northern Shores by Joanne Bischof

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“The Norgaard brothers and their families will steal your heart.” —Catherine West, author of Where Hope Begins

Heartache and regret, boldness and sacrifice. What will restoration cost the beloved Norgaard family?

Aven Norgaard understands courage. Orphaned within an Irish workhouse, then widowed at just nineteen, she voyaged to America where she was wooed and wed by Thor Norgaard, a Deaf man in rural Appalachia. That the Lord saw her along the winding journey and that Aven now carries Thor’s child are blessings beyond measure. Yet while Thor holds her heart, it is Haakon—his younger brother and rival—who haunts her memories.

Having fled the Norgaard orchard after trying to take Aven as his own, Haakon sails on the North Atlantic ice trade, where his soul is plagued with regrets that distance cannot heal. Not even the beautiful Norwegian woman he’s pursued can ease the torment. When the winds bear him home after four years away, Haakon finds the family on the brink of tragedy. A decades-old feud with the neighboring farm has wrenched them into the fiercest confrontation on Blackbird Mountain since the Civil War. Haakon’s cunning and strength hold the power to seal many fates, including Thor’s—which is already imperiled due to a grave illness brought to him at the first prick of warfare.

Now Haakon faces the hardest choice of his life. One that shapes a battlefield where pride must be broken enough to be restored, and where a prodigal son may finally know the healing peace of surrender and the boundless gift of forgiveness. And when it comes to the woman he left behind in Norway, he just might discover that while his heart belongs to a daughter of the north, she’s been awaiting him on shores more distant than the land he’s fighting for.

From Christy Award–winning author Joanne Bischof comes Daughters of Northern Shores: the highly anticipated sequel to her moving novel Sons of Blackbird Mountain.

My Thoughts:

I was very excited to get to visit with the Norgaard family again, especially after the ending of the last book. We come into this next book four years later, Haakon is still gone and Aven and Thor are expecting their first child after a long tearful wait. All the rest of the family is still on the farm along with Peter Sorrel from their embittered rival neighbors.

Everything is going along well until the other Sorrels pose a danger for Thor’s family and Thor becomes deathly ill. My heart went out to both Thor and Aven and all that they faced. I really like Thor and he becomes a character that really is easy to read, maybe it is because he doesn’t speak or can’t hear, and the author really shows us the world from his viewpoint. He was my favorite.

Reading the notes the author had in the end, I am really glad she gave Haakon a chance for redemption and reconciliation. His very actions with Aven haunted him and ate at him. He ran as far away as he could and drowned his sorrows in a very unhealthy lifestyle but he had a friend that kept reminding him of God and his love. For Haakon to really move on and be with the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about he first had to come home and make things right with his family. Not always the easiest choice but his story was more beautiful for it.

Family is very important in this story, and forgiveness is uppermost. This was an epic tale of family and love and I can’t wait to read more by author Bischof.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.