When Love Calls
By Lorna Seilstad
Historical romance
Revel, a division of Baker Publishing Group
May 2013
ISBN 9780800721817
Paper: 14.99
From the publisher:
Hannah Gregory is a good many things, but that list does
not include following rules. So when she must apply for a job as a switchboard
operator to support her two sisters, she knows it won’t be easy. Hello Girls
must conduct themselves according to strict and often bewildering rules, which
include absolutely no consorting with gentlemen while in training.
With historical details that bring to life the exciting
first decade of the twentieth century, Lorna Seilstad weaves a charming tale of
companionship that blossoms into sweet romance.
I enjoy Lorna’s stories. So far they’ve made the end of the
nineteenth and early twentieth-century era come alive in America’s heartland—Iowa.
In this new book, When Love Calls, from the Gregory
Sisters series, Seilstad explores the world of switchboard operators on the
telephone exchange. I was especially interested since I had written about a
similar character. Readers who enjoy history, particularly the plight of
working women in the early twentieth century, will find much to appreciate
about the depth of detail the author uses to effectively create dilemma for her
wonderfully multi-layered characters.
Romances don’t leave much to the imagination, but the
journey to the church aisle is often entertaining. From the moment attorney
Lincoln Cole shows up at the recently orphaned Gregory girls’ farm to
foreclose, the reader knows Hannah is in for a fight for her heart. Having given
up law school in order to find work, independent and feisty Hannah sees an
advertisement for switchboard operators, or Hello Girls, for the Iowa exchange,
and applies for a highly-coveted training position. Not even the dire warning
that less than half of them will graduate and only a handful will succeed on
the switchboard, Hannah excels in the course, making friends and enemies along
the way. Too practical to realize a farm neighbor has been harboring a secret
crush, Hannah worries but ignores his warnings about the unrest caused by local
union activities for laborer’s rights.
Lincoln Cole, son of a senator, is pushed toward his late father’s
political aspirations. Those plans include associating with the right type of
people and marriage with the right kind of society woman, not a common
switchboard operator who associates with criminals. Lincoln realizes there is
more to life when he meets Hannah and her younger sisters, a teenage potential
hoyden, and the youngest, a dreamy schoolgirl who’s willing to help him plot
Hannah’s romantic downfall.
When Love Calls
hit nice highs and lows for all characters during this time of change, of
unrest and uncertainty. Told from multiple viewpoints, the story shows what
family devotion, faith, love, and respect should look like.
Available May 2013 at your favorite book seller from Revell,
a division of Baker Publishing Group.
