Undaunted Hope

November 1, 2015

When Tessa Taylor arrives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula intending to teach, she's dismayed to learn that she wasn't the candidate they expected. Allowed to stay until the male instructor they hired arrives, Tessa is determined to show them that she is perfect for the job. Meanwhile, her young students play matchmaker, and two men vie for Tessa's affections. Fans of this trilogy (Love Unexpected; Hearts Made Whole) will anticipate this final volume.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015
Knowing that many employers refuse to hire women, when Tessa Taylor applies to be a teacher in Eagle Harbor, in northern Michigan, she uses her first and middle initials. The ruse gets her there, but the superintendent is not pleased. The bleak mining town is about to be frozen in by the harsh winter, and no ships will be able to get through with a replacement male teacher, so Tessa is reluctantly kept on until the spring thaw. In 1871, it's difficult enough to teach in an isolated area, but Tessa has the added stress of a broken-down school building, two brothers who want to woo her, and the evil superintendent, who is willing to do anything, even commit murder, to make the townspeople do his bidding. In the third book in her faith-based Beacons of Hope series (Love Unexpected, 2014; Hearts Made Whole, 2015), Hedlund offers a realistic look at the precarious plight of miners and the unbearable life of people in a town where an official without a moral compass controls every aspect of their lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)