Review: The Weaver's Daughter by Sarah E. Ladd

To Purchase

About the Book:

Kate’s loyalties bind her to the past. Henry’s compel him to strive for a better future. In a landscape torn between tradition and vision, can two souls find the strength to overcome their preconceptions?

Loyalty has been at the heart of the Dearborne family for as long as Kate can remember, but a war is brewing in their small village, one that has the power to rip families asunder–including her own. As misguided actions are brought to light, she learns how deep her father’s pride and bitterness run, and she begins to wonder if her loyalty is well-placed.

Henry Stockton, heir to the Stockton fortune, returns home from three years at war seeking refuge from his haunting memories. Determined to bury the past, he embraces his grandfather’s plans to modernize the family’s wool mill, ignoring the grumblings from local weavers. When tragedy strikes shortly after his arrival, Henry must sort truth from suspicion if he is to protect his family’s livelihood and legacy.

Henry has been warned about the Dearborne family. Kate, too, has been advised to stay far away from the Stocktons, but chance meetings continue to bring her to Henry’s side, blurring the jagged lines between loyalty, justice, and truth. Kate ultimately finds herself with a powerful decision that will forever affect her village’s future. As unlikely adversaries, Henry and Kate must come together to find a way to create peace for their families, their village, and their souls—even if it means risking their hearts in the process.

My Thoughts:

The Weaver’s Daughter takes us to the time when progress was threatening the common people’s way of life and their livelihood. This particular conflict takes place between the weavers and the cotton mill and it was a fierce one. Families were torn apart which trickled into everyday life in the lives of the townspeople.

This is where Kate finds herself. Her brother seeing the future in the machines goes against their very stubborn father, a weaver, and begins working for the mill. Kate’s father sees her as just a ‘woman’ and intends to marry the man he has chosen to replace her brother.

Henry, the grandson of the mill owner, has come back home after fighting a war and surprises everyone in the town who all thought he was dead. He is not quite the same man who left, and he finds that he sees his future looking very different than what others have always wanted for him.

The atmosphere is dark, brooding, and very tension filled. Everyone has let animosity and bitterness take over and danger lurks just around the corner in a town that should be friendly. There is a romance that begins to blossom slowly, very fragile and at many times almost snuffed out. There is a mystery I was not expecting at all. This was a very moral tale of how man’s pride can be his downfall. Hopefully we will get some more of these characters stories.

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