Able McLaughlins Review

I think that I enjoyed this book more than I've enjoyed any book for a while. It is just a good book full of good people, well mostly. I guess the main characters are good, but there always has to be someone bad in it to make for an interesting story. I had a really hard time finding this book to borrow from the library. The university my husband works for only had a copy that was not for circulation and our city library didn't have any. I tried an interlibrary loan and was told there were only 100 copies in our entire state (and I live in a LARGE state) so I went online hoping to buy one for $5.00, but the cheapest copy I could find was $20.00. My point in telling you all this? It may be a hard one to find, for those of you who live near me and want to borrow it, you're welcome to.

The story is about a group of people who came over from Scotland and settled in Iowa. It's a small community and most of them are related, but not all. It starts with a story about the McLaughlin's son, Wully, who has been fighting in the Civil War and he has a short homecoming. While he is home recovering from some wounds he is reintroduced to Chirstie and falls in love and decides that she is the one for him to marry. In fact they both kind of fall in love right a way. He has to go back to the war for several months but returns home anxious to see Chirstie and to marry her, but she doesn't respond to him and in fact is cold and almost frightened of him. I don't want to go into detail about why because it would ruin the book, but it is a bad thing that happens to her while he is away.

The rest of the book is a love story between these two people and how they build their lives and make something great out of something tragic that happens. I really liked Wully, I think he is an excellent man and personifies all that is good in the world. I also loved to read about Wully's mother, Mrs. McLaughlin. She is the kind of woman I would like to be. She's industrious, kind, funny, and all around just a great woman and mother, she is one of my favorite characters.

Although there is sadness and some angry emotions in this book, mostly of revenge, it is an uplifting story about human nature and how healing it is to forgive and to love. I would highly recommend it to anyone.