Review: My Heart Belongs in Niagara Falls, New York: Adele's Journey by Amanda Barratt

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About:

Outwardly, Adele Linley’s trip to visit her American cousins is nothing more than a summer vacation. In reality, she’s the daughter of an English aristocrat with barely a penny to her name seeking a rich American husband. 

Having grown up in an overcrowded orphanage, Drew Dawson is determined to make a name for himself. He’ll take any honest job to provide for his sister—even crossing Niagara Falls by tightrope.

On a sightseeing trip to the Falls, Adele meets several eligible suitors. Incredibly wealthy and pompous, Franklin Conway takes an immediate fancy to her. But Adele would truly like to marry for love.  When she encounters the mysterious Drew in the garden, Adele is confused by her feelings for someone who is everything she is NOT looking for. Will they both stay the course they have chosen for themselves?

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this literary visit to the Niagara Falls. I haven’t been to the Falls since I was a teenager and it was a nice change of pace to read about it, even if it was during a different time. We have two characters, Adele Linley, an aristocrat from England, and Drew Dawson an orphan who both are in need of money for different reasons. They both have set determined courses of getting said money, and in my opinion neither one seems safe or secure. Adele has come to find a rich American husband, not for love but for money. And Drew is planning on walking on a tightrope across the falls.

While reading this book I kept thinking about those, funambulist (a new word for me) and what could possibly inspire them to walk across the dangerous falls on a tightrope where one mistake and only one could mean death. This book had a palpable tension as the day was coming closer for Drew to take that fateful walk. I felt as Adele did that there had to be another way. The feelings of entrapment in their circumstances was felt and this book took some surprising turns in regards to that walk and Adele contemplating marriage to a questionable man she did not love. This was an interesting story of two strangers who become friends and without planning for it fall in love with each other.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review.