The Heart’s Charge – Review

by Karen Witemeyer

Publisher : Bethany House Publishers (June 1, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 384 pages
ISBN-10 : 0764232088
ISBN-13 : 978-0764232084

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Members of Hanger’s Horsemen, Mark Wallace and Jonah Brooks arrive in Llano County, Texas, to deliver a steed, never expecting they’d deliver a baby as well. Left with an infant to care for, they head to a nearby foundling home, where Mark encounters the woman he’d nearly married a decade ago.

After failing at love, Katherine Palmer dedicated her life to caring for children, teaming up with Eliza Southerland to start Harmony House. From mixed ancestry, illegitimate, and female, Eliza understands the pain of not fitting society’s mold. Yet those are the very attributes that lead her to minister to outcast children. The taciturn Jonah intrigues her with his courage and kindness, but there are secrets behind his eyes–ghosts from wars past and others still being waged.

However, when a handful of urchin children from the area go missing, a pair of Horsemen are exactly what the women need. Working together to find the children, will these two couples find love as well?

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Karen Witemeyer is the reason I stepped outside my Historical Regency comfort zone and started reading Westerns. Books like this are exactly why I now love Westerns!

The theme of this story was very important to me. God has called us to help the orphans no matter who they are or where they are from. Stories like the one Abner shared are so heartbreaking. Eliza’s story was also heartbreaking, and far too common.

It’s often tough to have a book written with four lead characters who are equally important and fully developed. Witemeyer has accomplished this so well. There was also a mystery and some action in this book along with the romance of the two couples.

This book can be read as a standalone, but if you read the first book in the series (At Love’s Command) you can learn more about the history of the horsemen.

I loved the plot and the characters. I read through the book at a fast pace but then read the end slowly because I wanted to savor it. I can’t wait for Preach’s story!