Anyone who has ever looked into their family history has wondered what it would be like to travel back in time and actually meet their family. Joan Soward’s novel Bridges of the Heart fulfills this fantasy for us as twenty-one-year-old Rachel is plunged into the pre-Civil War South and meets her ancestors. She takes with her a heart mourning the loss of her mother, worrying over her sister and confused about the man who wants to marry her…and returns to the present with a heart healed by the bridges of compassion and forgiveness only a family can provide.
The story carries you from page to page with believable characters such as Lucretia, Jonathan, Coker and the interesting Sheriff Gainey—who looks so much like Maxson, the present-day man Rachel loves. We are taken back in time as we feel the hardness of the wagon seat as we travel over rough ground, smell the clean air of the forest after rain fall and sleep under a handmade quilt scented of jasmine. This is a time-travel journey you won’t want to miss, so take Rachel’s hand and cross The Bridges of the Heart…it will be an adventure you won’t soon forget.
Bridges of the Heart by Joan Sowards provides the reader an intriguing contemporary romance as well as unique perspective of early the 19th century South. I've read this book three times and enjoyed it more each time.
"Bridges of the Heart" by Joan Sowards takes the reader from the present to post-Revolutionary America where Rachel, who is running from the confusion of her own life, manages to become immediately tangled in events from her family history. From her awkward arrival when she offends a grieving widow to the time she finds herself arrested by the sheriff who looks exactly like the man she loves back in her own time, it begins to seem like nothing will ever work out for Rachel without creating a time paradox. (Other than becoming the name sake for the child who will later become Rachel's name sake. yep,) "Bridges" tells the story of family that connects through generations, intertwining their adventures and heartaches. It will be enjoyed by those who feel a connection to the past or would like to reshape the future.
