Forgiving

by LaVyrle Spencer Narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith

Overview

When Sarah Merritt arrives in Dakota Territory in 1876, she steps off the dusty Cheyenne stagecoach determined to start this ramshackle gold-rush town's first newspaper. In Deadwood, her runaway younger sister, Addie, is living and working as domestic help at Mrs. Hossiter's boardinghouse, according to her letters. Five years after Addie's flight from home, Sarah is carrying the sad news that their one remaining parent, newspaper publisher Isaac Merritt, has died.



But when Sarah-tall, prim, and nearly a spinster at twenty-five-sets up her father's printing press in the middle of Main Street, she finds herself at loggerheads with Sheriff Noah Campbell. Headstrong and opinionated, with an auburn mustache and grinning gray eyes, he arrests her on the spot. And so begins an enmity between two willful individuals that can change only when they find themselves united in a common goal: to reclaim the Addie that Sarah once knew.



But life is never simple. Mrs. Hossiter is more commonly known as Rosie in this bawdy frontier town, and Addie's work is as an "upstairs girl," not an upstairs maid. Addie is furious when Sarah turns up at the bordello-and she tells her proper sister to get out. What could have happened to change Addie so-and what can Sarah do to regain the sweet sister of her youth and bring her home again?

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The latest saga from Spencer ( Bitter Sweet ) is an uneven western romance that will no doubt please her fans--but just barely. Sarah Merritt arrives in Deadwood, Dakota territory, in 1876 with her father's printing press and two ambitions--to find her sister Addie and to establish a local newspaper. In a town of mining bachelors, Sarah quickly becomes the center of attention in more ways than one, particularly when she knocks heads with marshal Noah Campbell, her soon-to-be romantic interest. Sarah finds Addie working in a local brothel and commences a long struggle to win back her affection and her soul. She writes to Addie's former fiance, who comes to Deadwood and joins her in pursuing Addie's salvation, an endeavor which will force them all to confront an ugly secret from the past. Sarah begins as a likable if irascible figure and Noah is predictably taciturn, but their romance drags on even after Addie achieves domestic bliss. Spencer's prose occasionally sinks to the level of B westerns, there are confusing shifts of perspective and occasional intrusive commentary by the author. Pedestrian even for a horse opera. Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild alternate. (Feb.)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173376312
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/27/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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