Overview

"When Harriet Beecher marries Calvin Stowe on January 6, 1836, she is sure her future will be filled romance, eventually a family, and continued opportunities to develop as a writer. Her husband Calvin is completely supportive and said she must be a literary woman. Harriet's sister, Catharine, worries she will lose her identity in marriage, but she is determined to preserve her independent spirit. Deeply religious, she strongly believes God has called her to fulfill the roles of wife and writer and will help her accomplish everything she was born to do. Two months after her wedding Harriet discovers she is pregnant just as Calvin prepares to leave for a European business trip. Alone, Harriet is overwhelmed-being a wife has been harder than she thought and being an expectant mother feels like living another woman's life. Knowing that part of Calvin still cherishes the memory of his first wife, Harriet begins to question her place in her husband's heart and yearns for his return; his letters are no substitute for having him home. When Calvin returns, however, nothing seems to have turned out as planned. Struggling to balance the demands of motherhood with her passion for writing and her desire to be a part of the social change in Ohio, Harriet works to build a life with her beloved Calvin despite differing temperaments and expectations. Can their love endure, especially after ""I do""? Can she recapture the first blush of new love and find the true beauty in her marriage?"

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9781629723419

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The expectations for a woman in that day and age did not include serious intellectual work, and in Kilpack's telling, both Harriet and Calvin must learn to take her career seriously in order to make their marriage work. Kilpack's depiction of the challenges of juggling household management, childcare, and pen is convincing and touching, and her research is solid (and well-explained in the endnotes). As an examination of how much labor domesticity really involves, the book is surprisingly passionate-and entertaining. -- (07/13/2017) In this Proper Romance, part of a series featuring famous authors, the focus is on a young couple finding their path through the difficult first years of marriage, merging their very different expectations to build a solid partnership. Written in a simple and straightforward style, the novel also stresses Harriet's religious conviction and anti-slavery beliefs. This is a realistic portrayal of attitudes and expectations of the times, making it even more remarkable that Harriet Beecher Stowe accomplished all that she did. -- (08/04/2017) A thought-provoking and well-written read...Kilpack delivers another powerful historical romance. Meticulously researched...Will deeply resonate with readers. In fact, the narrative is astonishingly relevant for this day. Highly recommended. -- (09/11/2017) It is clear when reading All That Makes Life Bright that as an author, Josi S. Kilpack is a complete master of the romance genre and a gifted original novelist able to fully engage her readers from cover to cover. Unreservedly recommended, especially for community library Historical Romance collections. -- (02/23/2018) 2017 Foreword Indies Book of the Year Finalist in Romance/Adult Fiction--Foreword Reviews 2017 Foreword Reviews Best Indies Book of the Year Honorable Mention for Romance--Foreword Reviews In her latest marvelously engaging historical novel, Kilpack writes with great insight and superb sensitivity about the ways in which Harriet and Calvin struggled to achieve a marriage that works for both of them. At the same time, Kilpack deftly demonstrates how Harriet's early married years acted as a sort of literary petri dish in which she refined her own writing skills while also defining her thoughts on the issue of slavery, ultimately leading her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel which played a major role in advancing the abolitionist cause not just in the United States but around the world. An excellent introduction to the early life and times of one of nineteenth-century America's most fascinating and influential women. -- (08/01/2017)

Author Information

Josi S. Kilpack is the author of twenty-five novels, including A Culinary Mystery series and several titles in A Proper Romance series and A Historical Proper Romance series. Her novel A Heart Revealed was a 2015 Publishers Weekly Best Romance Book of the Year. She and her husband, Lee, are the parents to four children.

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