Change of Heart

Marietta Randolf’s mother emphasized to her that to be a lady, and therefore happy, she would need to always keep close company with other ladies and never let a man get in the way of good judgment. Her mother so ingrained into her that without a full social life she had no purpose. With those decrees so much a part of her life Marietta would never have given any thought to leaving her home in Chicago if her sister, Kathy and her husband had not been killed, leaving behind their young son, Zack. Coming to Nebraska to retrieve her nephew and bring him to Chicago to raise him the last thing Marietta expects is to fall in love with anyone, especially Jase Kent.

Jase has spent his adult life pursuing one dream after another. Always rushing to the brass ring. Each endeavor has been a success including his ranch. His latest dream is to work with the consortium that plans to build a new town, providing goods and supplies to folks journeying west on the Oregon Trail. When he meets Marietta she turns his life on it’s end. For the first time the prospect of settling down seems to be the more important goal, but it takes two and Marietta is determined to return to Chicago with Zack.

Despite their acknowledgement of loving each other and wanting to do the best for Zack, Marietta will not relinquish her mother’s dictates on what makes a lady a lady. Not even Jack’s need for a father.

Fran Shaff’s CHANGE OF HEART is a sweet romance that takes readers into the minds of two people who have been shaped by others outside them, Marietta, her mother, Jase by his goals and dreams. Both have been made immobile by those strictures, neither willing to look past their self-constructed barriers that keep them safe. In it’s own way, the story gives readers permission to look beyond their own self-imposed walls and to take in the possibilities. How many of us had/have mothers who wanting the best for us, have imposed their own sets of rules based on their own lives? It is the rare mother who truly lets her daughter find her own way rather than set up strictures that stand in the way of happiness. As a young adult story it gives gentle guidance to young women and men to listen to the guidance they receive, yet look towards taking the chance that will make them happy.

Marietta’s development from her mother’s daughter and a woman afraid to move out of her assigned role to a woman in love with her own dreams and goals is well done.

July 2007