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Reviewed by:
  • Hearts of Iron
  • Hope Morrison
Duble, Kathleen Benner Hearts of Iron. McElderry, 2006248p ISBN 1-4169-0850-1$15.95 R Gr. 5-8

Jesse Rosseter and Lucy Pettee have been friends since they were four; that's when Lucy and her recently widowed father moved from the city to the Connecticut hills. Now that they're in their mid-teens, Jesse is making secret plans to leave and join the navy, despite his father's demands that he, like the rest of the Rosseters, take his place in the ironworks, and Lucy is trying to figure out a way to avoid her father's plans to marry her off to a city gentleman. When Samuel Lernley arrives to work in Mr. Pettee's shop, Lucy learns that he has been invited as an eligible suitor for her. Determined to despise him, she instead finds him extremely agreeable; these feelings prove tremendously confusing to Lucy, who is beginning to feel a romantic shift in her relationship with Jesse. Set in 1820 in a tightly knit mountain community whose very existence centers on the ironworks, this is a tenderly composed, carefully researched historical love story. The core tension in the novel—Jesse's determination [End Page 249] to go vs. Lucy's determination to stay—is both simple and profound, and the class issues (Lucy's father will not allow her to consider marrying Jesse, as she is from a higher class) are realistically developed. Because both the affection between Jesse and Lucy and Samuel's likable nature are so thoughtfully rendered, readers will find it difficult deciding which romance to champion, and a surprise ending will add further complexity. Fans of contemporary romance are just as likely to fall for this tender story as are readers of historical fiction. An author's note offers information on the forge at Mt. Riga, on which the story is based, and a list of sources is included.

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