Book Review
1940. Olivia Belle Ash is a romance writer who has lost her voice. Famous as “Via Belle” for 20 years, she is now faced with a deadline she cannot meet. Awash in grief, she struggles to write again after the death of her husband three years ago. She also mourns the daughter she lost in infancy. Then, after an invitation to a university literary conference, she meets Simon Farrow. Ultimately, she begins a whirlwind relationship with this younger man, but things are not as they seem.
2006. Harper Rayne is a caterer and aspiring screenwriter looking for a story that will make her career. She ultimately decides to research the story of Via Belle, her late mother’s favorite author, who suddenly vanished in the 1940s.
Some parallels to the real life of a famous Christian romance author, Grace Livingston Hill, are present in the story. Hill was happily married to a minister before his death in 1899. She became a famous author in the early 20th century, and then suffered a very unhappy marriage to a younger man. This book appears to be inspired by Hill’s story, and the author also dedicated The Lost Story of Via Belle to Grace Livingston Hill.
The 1940s timeline is compelling, and the secrets and deception are well written. Simon is as unlikeable a character as many of the villains in the books of Grace Livingston Hill, who usually created very clear heroes and villains in her novels. The 2006 timeline is not as gripping at first, but it does grow in complexity by the end of the book. Fans of Christian fiction and of Hill’s books will enjoy this novel.
I received a free copy of this book from Tyndale Fiction via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary, and the opinions expressed are my own.
Additional Comments
This is another review I did for The Historical Novel Society. You can see it on their website here. As mentioned above, it is very loosely based on the life of Grace Livingston Hill, an early 20th Century Christian romance writer. My grandmother started reading Grace’s books to her kids in the 1930’s and 40s, and my Mom passed them on to me. They are very old fashioned–Grace frowned on makeup, for example. But they’re wonderful Christian stories for their time period. My favorite is The Substitute Guest, which I talk about a little bit here.
About Grace Livingston Hill
Grace Livingston Hill (April 16, 1865 – February 23, 1947) was a prolific early 20th-century American novelist best known for her Christian romance and inspirational fiction. She wrote over 100 novels and numerous short stories, often under her own name or the pseudonym Marcia Macdonald (her mother’s maiden name). Her works typically featured young Christian women (or characters who convert to Christianity) facing moral challenges, romance, and redemption, with clear themes of good versus evil and faith restoring lives.
Grace’s Two Marriages
Reverend Thomas Guthrie Franklin Hill: Grace married “Frank” in 1892, and they were married until he died in 1899 from complications of appendicitis. They had two daughters, settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and collaborated on Christian Endeavor materials. After his death, Grace began writing full-time to support her daughters.
Flavius Joseph Lutz: Grace married Lutz, a music teacher for her daughters and 15 years her junior, in 1904, against the advice of others. It was a very unhappy union. Lutz did not contribute to the household financially, not even from music lessons, and was verbally abusive. He often left to stay with his parents, and in 1914, Grace told him not to come back. There was no divorce, but there are rumors that the marriage was later annulled. Grace continued writing into the 1940s and died in 1947.
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