The Lady’s Mine
The Lady’s Mine
By: Francine Rivers
[This was on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022]
“Courage could be reckless, and recklessness brought consequences.”
I just went and saw the movie adaptation for Francine River’s most famous book, Redeeming Love. It was fitting then to see this book coming out this year as it also takes place in California’s gold country in the late 1800s.
The setting is the same, but this story is much different. It is a much more lighthearted tale.
This aptly and cleverly titled historical fiction/romance novel follows Kathryn Walsh, sent away from her wealthy stepfather and mother for ‘disturbing their peace’ to make a living in California with the inheritance she received from her uncle. Walsh, adamant about never getting married, gets to her destination of Calvada and meets Matthias Beck who quickly becomes determined to marry her… same as every other mining bachelor in the town.
‘The lady’s mine,’ he tells another suitor.
The second plot thread woven into this title is the aforementioned inheritance which includes a claim to a mine everyone in town assumes is worthless. Kathryn hopes there is more to the mine than meets the eye and that she can use it to help boost the economy and living conditions in the town.
This book has a lot going on!
There is Walsh’s adventure in finding a marketable trade and determination to revamp the newspaper her uncle had run and all the dangers that come with printing unpopular truths.
There is Walsh’s courage and fire in promoting women’s rights and her attempts to help the other women in Calvada in a variety of circumstances, from miner’s widows to brothel workers to abused wives to young single women just arriving in town.
There are the murders of two men in the town— one of which was her uncle from whom she received the inheritance— and what had led to the crimes. Why would someone kill her uncle? Are the two murders connected?
There is the community aspect of what goes into making a mining boom-town prosper and survive during this harsh and unpredictable time period and location. It’s about how one person can impact an entire community for the better or the worse.
And of course, there is the romance that develops between Kathryn and Matthias as he strives to win her obstinate heart and keep her safe as her courage takes her into reckless territory!
Honestly, I feel like this would make a good TV series. I’ve never seen When Calls the Heart, so this could be completely off-base, but it seems like it might be in a similar vein. Unless that show doesn’t have murders, in which case this would be more intense and mysterious.
Knowing the first-wave feminists fought for the right to vote to also promote prohibition, it was interesting to see where Rivers was going to go with Walsh’s strong beliefs in a town that was so centered around saloons and how that affected the women and families of the miners who frequented them.
Kathryn refused to marry because she had seen so many women lose their rights, their property, their voice when they became someone’s wife. I thought Rivers did a good job of promoting proper women’s rights while still maintaining the benefits and goodness of marriage and upholding the high value the Bible attributes to women.
Rivers includes a portion that talks about mishandled Scriptures involving women’s submission and their role in the church and the home. I liked how Kathryn did her own answer searching in the Bible and discovered what is true. There was definitely more to be considered in this discussion but a novel isn’t really the place for that. What was included felt sufficient.
One observation I’ll make here is that in both this and Redeeming Love there is a man who is determined to marry the woman. And I could see some thinking, ‘Uh, they’re a little pushy, leave the gal alone!’
But with Redeeming Love she is depicting the relentless pursuit of God for us when we push him away believing ourselves to be worthless and too unclean for him to love us.
In The Lady’s Mine Matthias is a bit pushy, but Kathryn has feelings for him that she’s trying to deny and he can tell. There are definitely some other pushy males in the book but they’re sketch and we are right to tell them to back off! Matthias is the type of man that would be a husband who would help his wife thrive, not try to suppress or control her. So we root for them.
I’ve said this before— romance is not my typical go-to genre, but I enjoyed this book. I liked the historical setting. I felt invested and engaged in the story and was able to visualize the world Rivers created. I also thought the Christian romance aspect of it was tastefully done and not too cheesy.
Rivers is good at depicting hard realities and passion without being graphic or using swear words. I’m glad for that.
If you’ve already read Francine Rivers and like her other books, I think you’ll like this.
If you’ve never read Francine Rivers but enjoy historical fiction and/or romance novels, I think you should give it a try!
[Sidenote: I guess if I had a criticism for this book it would be that she kept using ‘fillip’ when she said things like Kathryn’s heart did a ‘fillip.’ The actual definition of this word is appropriate for how she used it but I feel like she should have just said ‘flip.’ I felt like I was hiccuping when I read it in my head.]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
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