Book Review: Her Mother’s Hope

The first blurb I saw for Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers mentioned mother-daughter conflict, and that in itself didn’t sound like something I would want to read, but Francine writes riveting stories, and I knew there would be much more depth. And indeed, there was.

Marta Schneider is born to an abusive father and a God-fearing mother in Switzerland in the late 1800s. As she grows older, her father takes her out of school at a young age and sends her out to work at various service-related jobs. When she foresees that her life will never change, with her mother’s encouragement, she leaves.

Marta tackles anything that comes into her path with resolve and hard work. She travels various places and learns different skills and languages with a desire to open her own boarding house some day. When she finally realizes her dream, she unexpectedly falls in love with one of her boarders and marries.

When Marta’s daughter, Hildemara, is born early, small, and frail, Marta is determined that she will never end up as her younger sister, Elise, did, who was a fragile soul, beautiful and overprotected, who came to a tragic end. Marta’s efforts to make her daughter tough and strong are often misunderstood. Hildemara feels as if she can never obtain her mother’s approval, so when she can she goes off on her own quest.

You just ache for these two and their misunderstood actions toward each other.

I also enjoyed Marta’s relationship with her quieter husband, the fact that though she drives him crazy sometimes, he loves her and her “fire.” They spar often over — well, over many things, but most often over the need to rest and wait on the Lord versus the need to take matters into their own hands and do something.

The historical backdrop covers two world wars, the plight of immigrants to this country, especially when their old and new countries are at war, and the hard life of a sharecropper.

Francine shares that though the story is fictional, it contains many facts from her own family’s history.

It’s not a short read at 483 pages, but it goes quickly. I enjoyed spending an entire evening with this book, which is rare for me — I usually read in bits.

I don’t feel as if I am doing the book justice, so let me just say I recommend it. I have readers who would want to know these things, so I will just mention that there are a couple of instances of intimacy between Marta and her husband that were more explicit than I wanted to read, but they are very brief.

I am glad I waited to read the book until this time, because the sequel, Her Daughter’s Dream, is due out today — so I don’t have to wait long to find out what happens next!

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)