Courting Trouble

Courting Trouble
By Deanne Gist
Bethany House Publishers, 2007. 330 pages. Romance

Esther Spreckelmeyer hates her last name and the annual 4th of July town picnic where she feels like everyone in the world goes by two by two, except her. At age thirty in 1894 Corsicana, Texas, Esther is considered long past the marriageable age. Exasperated with her situation, Esther makes a list of all the eligible bachelors in town and decides to court them herself. Many of the people in town think Esther is a little too much. Esther has a penchant for wearing flamboyant hats and riding her modern bicycle through the main streets of town. Although Esther thinks all men are blind to her charms, three different men are indeed interested: Hamilton Crook, a shop owner, who runs from her bold advances, Adam Currington, a handsome blond and blue-eyed drifter, and Ewing Wortham, former childhood best friend. Esther is naive about men, having been sheltered from them most of her life by her influential judge father. As a consequence, her dealings with them range from the comedic to the tragic.

This novel is different from Deanne Gist’s other works. It is more heavy-handed in its Christian themes. The novel is less a straightforward romance and more of an exploration of Esther’s life journey. Also, there is no dramatic, stand-out male hero. I felt like although Esther’s personality certainly is exuberant, she is slightly less complex than some of Gist’s other protagonists. To be fair, this is the first of a two part series. The second book is titled, “Deep in the Heart of Trouble”, where I’m sure Esther will learn from the mistakes she made in the first novel.

ALC