A Wild and Heavenly Place by Robin Oliveria

One family goes from luxury to poverty while another goes from poverty to more poverty, but then both circle back.

The MacIntyre family was living in luxury until the bank of Glasgow failed.

Samuel was poverty stricken from birth.

Harold Macintyre lost everything including his job.

He decided to move his family from Scotland to Seattle, Washington, where he was hoping to get a job in the coal business.

It was a rude awakening for his family, but now they know how the poor that Mrs. MacIntyre had no time for back in Scotland had to live.

Hailey MacIntyre was more devastated than her mother because she had fallen in love with Samuel Fiddes a poor dock worker back in Scotland. Her mother forbid her to see Samuel.

Meanwhile Samuel is on his way to Seattle to find Hailey, and she doesn’t know it.

We follow Samuel, his little sister Allison, and the MacIntyre family as we share in their struggle to live and live with them in their sorrows in this time frame - 1878 to 1882.

I loved sweet Allison.

Samuel will warm your heart too with how he takes care of his sister.

You will also feel the pain of most of the characters, but you will want James to have some pain.

The descriptions were very vivid and easily took you to the setting.  Ms. Oliveria’s Writing is beautiful and lush.

There also is some heartbreaking romance, but more of the lives of the characters and how the homesteaders built a life for themselves and the country in the wild area they lived in.  5/5

Historical fiction fans will enjoy this book even though most is about hardships and heartbreak.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book.  All opinions are my own.