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Overview
Jesse is a dreamer.
At fourteen he's already thinking about his future, and the excitement of Navy life is calling him.
Lucy is just the opposite.
She can't imagine ever leaving her beloved mountainside community or saying good-bye to those she cares about.
But despite their desires, these two best friends know that their futures have been decided for them. The year is 1820, and Jesse's parents expect him to continue in the family tradition of working at the forge on the mountain, while Lucy's father expects her to marry someone outside their community and find a better, more sophisticated life somewhere else. So what happens when family expectations clash with what's in a teenager's heart? Is it possible to find a balance between one's destiny and one's dreams — or must these two friends risk everything to create their own path to happiness?
Hearts of Iron is a moving novel about family, friendship, the power of love, and the few precious opportunities we're given to set the course of our life.
Synopsis
Jesse is a dreamer.
At fourteen he's already thinking about his future, and the excitement of Navy life is calling him.
Lucy is just the opposite.
She can't imagine ever leaving her beloved mountainside community or saying good-bye to those she cares about.
But despite their desires, these two best friends know that their futures have been decided for them. The year is 1820, and Jesse's parents expect him to continue in the family tradition of working at the forge on the mountain, while Lucy's father expects her to marry someone outside their community and find a better, more sophisticated life somewhere else. So what happens when family expectations clash with what's in a teenager's heart? Is it possible to find a balance between one's destiny and one's dreams — or must these two friends risk everything to create their own path to happiness?
Hearts of Iron is a moving novel about family, friendship, the power of love, and the few precious opportunities we're given to set the course of our life.
Children's Literature
The small hamlet of Mount Riga, Connecticut, relies upon its iron forge for existence. It is 1820 and the seasonal forge work that occupies most of the men of Mount Riga is about to commence. For Lucy Pettee this is a time of bitter sweetness. Her lifelong friend and companion, Jesse Rossetter, has begun working at the forge. Jesse hates this labor and dreams of running off to join the navy. Lucy's father, the local shopkeeper, wants a better life for his daughter than one in the mountains. He sends away for a young acquaintance to come and court his daughter with an eye toward her relocating to Boston. But Lucy thinks she loves Jesse and feels guilt whenever her attention is drawn to the stranger from Boston. Faced with the confusion of young love and divided loyalties, Lucy must make drastic choices. These choices, and those of people she cares about, change her life in ways she could hardly imagine. Set against the backdrop of the beautiful New England mountain country, this title tells a believable story of adolescent love in a long gone day and age. This historical novel combines believable characters, a well-paced story, and an eye for the customs of a distant time. In telling the story of Lucy Pettee and her neighbors, Kathleen Benner Duble has shown both an eye for historical authenticity as well as a compassionate writer's heart.