Courting Miss Amsel

by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Publication

Bethany House Publishers (2011), 352 pages

Description

A new schoolteacher has a small 1880s Nebraska town up in arms over her newfangled teaching methods in this charming prairie romance.

User reviews

LibraryThing member EdnaT
Edythe Amsel was twenty-eight years old and had always had to take care of her younger brothers and sisters, since their Mother had died. They were all grown now except Missy and she was fourteen, so Edythe left her at the home of a brother and left Omaha to go and teach school in Walnut Hill.
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Their Dad had gotten so lazy and so down that he had lost all interest in his home and his children after loosing his wife, when Missy was a baby.

Edythe was staying in the home of Mrs Kinsley and she loved all her students except William who was always playing tricks on her and all the other students. She had been to see all the student's parents but William's Pa said that he took care of William at home and it was her place to do so at school, but on the first day, he had broken the switch that the last teacher had used on the children and stated that she would never use on on hers. But William was another thing, there was no way of controlling him.

When she first came to town to teach all the bachelors came to her and wanted to date her, but she had decided she would never need a man because she thought they were all like her Pa. There were two young boys that were being raised by their uncle as their parents had been killed and he was unmarried. She loved these boys and really like the uncle but then there was her promise to herself that she didn't need a man in her life.

Her little sister Missy ran away from the brother's home and she finally wound up on the street of Walnut Hill almost dead, she wanted to only Mother she had ever know and that was her sister. She stayed with Edythe and started to school there. But things became so bad with William and then a lot of the council members didn't like her way of teaching, she decided that maybe she would leave this town and go back to Omaha when the year was over, but she didn't how God was going to take care of her soul and her life, also the life of one bachelor.

This book was really good and I rate it as a 5, it was sent to me by the Baker group free for me to review.
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LibraryThing member brokenship
I have a problem with Ms. Sawyer and it has very little to do with her writing style. Its not often that I read the back of books, I like to be captivated by titles and covers (yes, I'm one of those who judge a book by its cover), but when I agree to write reviews for novels I read the little blurb
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they offer. I want to read something I find interesting after all, and I only get one choice at a time, so I put my hopes into these quick synopsizes. Each time I have read a novel by Kim Vogel Sawyer I had been completely mislead. That is not to say they are not lovely novels, as they are and I quite enjoy the stories once I get to the heart of them, but the focus in the summary is completely off. I wonder why no one at the publisher's office is annoyed by this. In Every Heartbeat, the other novel I read, the second to last sentence mention the tensions of the world concerning WWI, something that is not even mentioned until the end of the novel. In this novel, Courting Miss Amsel, there seems to be a focus on a trip to see Susan Anthony and the woman's suffrage amendment. Once again, its barely touched upon in the novel and the main focus of the novel? Not even close.
Now that I've gone off on a complete tangent about my pet peeve with Ms. Sawyer's back covers, I have to say that I did enjoy this novel quite a bit. Its not anything to write home about, the storyline is pretty predictable and I wasn't entirely convinced by the sudden change in the characters at the end, but it was an easy enjoyable read. Edythe Amsel is fulfilling a goal of making something of herself. Coming from a less than idealistic home life, teaching seems the perfect answer. However, Miss Amsel isn't exactly what the sleepy town of Walnut Hill, Nebraska excepted and there a quite a few who cry out in opposition to her new, controversial teaching methods. One man, Joel Townsend, may not fully agree with her methods, but sees the value in her lessons. When Edythe steps too far out of the town's comfort zone, however, even Joel questions if he can support her forward thinking ideas. The revelations Sawyer writes about in her characters aren't exactly realistic, and boy are they sudden. But then again, this is Christian fiction and you know what you're getting into before you pick it up. And you should, pick it up. It's light and sweet, with a hint of history thrown in.
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LibraryThing member Coranne
Courting Miss AmselBy Kim Vogel SawyerPublished by Bethany HousePublished on January 1, 2011Edythe Amsel is delighted with her first teaching assignment: a one-room schoolhouse in Walnut Hill, Nebraska. Independent, headstrong, and a strong believer in a well-rounded education, Edythe is ready to
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open the world to the students in this tiny community. But is Walnut Hill ready for her?Joel Townsend is thrilled to learn the town council hired a female teacher to replace the ruthless man who terrorized his nephews for the past two years. Having raised the boys on his own since their parents' untimely deaths, Joel believes they will benefit from a woman's influence. But he sure didn't bargain on a woman like Miss Amsel. Within the first week, she has the entire town up in arms over her outlandish teaching methods, which include collecting leaves, catching bugs, making snow angels, and stringing ropes in strange patterns all over the schoolyard. Joel can't help but notice that she's also mighty pretty with her rosy lips, fashionable clothes, and fancy way of speaking.When Edythe decides to take her pupils to hear Miss Susan Anthony speak on the women's suffrage amendment, the town's outcry reaches new heights. Even Joel isn't sure he can support her newfangled ideas any longer. And if he can't trust her to know how to teach the boys, how can he trust her with his heart? I left this summary from Amazon up because this is what was on the back of the book. I find it to be a little misleading with the actual book itself. It is like one of those movie trailers that shows you all these big important scenes that end up not being so big or important in the book. This was a good book. Being a teacher, it felt a little odd reading a book about another teacher- but I did enjoy it. I liked that Miss Amsel was very independent and free thinking but didn't have it all figured out yet. I enjoyed the romance plot line. I think the only place that I thought was lacking was in the storyline of Miss Amsel's father. I was disappointed that he never made an actual appearance in the book. All in all a very good book.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

8.5 inches

ISBN

9780764207846

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