What Once We Loved

I just finished Jane Kirkpatrick’s What Once We Loved. The third book of The Kinship and Courage series. What a journey these woman took to move out West. The bonds of friendships made; the trials, the losses and the strength of each one tells a story in itself. I truly enjoyed this series and will definitely read more of Jane’s work!

Jane Kirkpatrick knows how to tell a story. Her characters are alive, complex and current. As the story unfolds it becomes a learning experience not only historically but relationally. The characters become alive in the words of the book and the story begins to envelop the reader.

This books does wrap up the series and puts a finishing touch to most of the characters. I would have loved for there to be another book showing these women 5 years down the line. The story was wonderful with a happy ending (hooray that Zane Randolph finaly gets his due!), and sheds some light to the beauty the settlers found in the beautiful Oregon territory. Jane...keep them coming!

This 3rd book of the trilogy drew me into the story and the lives of these strong women from page 1. How they overcame the tradegies they faced and prevailed was heart warming. In a present-day time of easy fixes, the obstacles these women overcame shaped their personalities and gave them amazing strength to go forward with their dreams. It's about dreams. And it is about not ever giving up. Ever! Wonderful!

What an inspiring piece of historical fiction! The women of this first book in Kirkpatrick's Kinship and Courage series overcome unimagineable hardship as they journey over the Oregon Trail in 1850. Facing the sexism of the time, with limited resources, they rely on their relationships with each other, and with God to survive. This is a story of strong women, an inspiration to anyone who is facing difficulty in life.

"What Once We Loved" is a wonderful book. Anyone who has read the first two books must read this one. If you have never read any of Jane's books this is still a wonderful, inspirational book. In the end I had to ration myself because while I was anxious to see what happens on the next page, I also did not want the story to end and have to leave Mazy and Elizabeth and all the others forever. Jane's gift for storytelling shines in thisfinale to the kinship series. She creates characters who jump right out of the pages and live in the readers' hearts. Even though this series is over I look forward to visiting with new characters in future stories.