"Joy on This Mountain" by Vikki Kestell

Joy Thoreson, daughter of Jan and Rose Thoreson, meets and falls in love with Grant Michaels. They marry, and she leaves River Bend, Nebraska, to settle with her husband in Omaha. They operate a hardware store, and all goes well, until Grant sails to England on a buyer’s trip and his ship is lost at sea.

Joy continues to work the store herself. She’s soon approached by a rather unsavory type of man (borderline thug) whose boss wants to become Joy’s business partner. After she repeatedly refuses, her store is destroyed in a fire, and she’s arrested and tried for arson. But the truth comes out, the guilty flee (or are killed), and Joy is exonerated. But her life in Omaha is over; she returns to her parents in River Bend to try to recover.

Her cousins in Colorado invite her to join them in a ministry aimed at helping women caught up in prostitution. They live in a mountain town two hours by rail from Denver, and it is a place with “houses” catering to some of the wealthiest men in the state. Joy accepts the invitation, and finds  gets caught up in a human trafficking issue right on the train to Denver. Wisely, as it turns out, she uses her maiden name – the mastermind behind the prostitution and human trafficking is the same man who ordered her store burned in Omaha. 

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Joy on This Mountain by Vikki Kestell is the story of Joy Thoreson and the third novel in her Prairie Heritage series (there are five more). It’s filled with the strong research of boom-and-bust Colorado, Pinkerton detectives, corrupt police and politicians, and young women caught up in degrading criminal activities. 

Before beginning her writing career, Kestell worked in government, academia, and corporate arenas, holding a Ph.D. degree in Organizational Learning and Instruction. She has also written four books in the “Nanostealth” series, three in “Girls from the Mountain” series, and several in the “Laynie Portland Spy” series, as well as a Bible study entitled “Growing Up in God.”

Joy on This Mountain, like its two predecessors The Rose Blooms Twice and Wild Heart on the Prairie, is an engrossing, page-turning, and hard-to-put-down read.

Related:

The Rose Blooms Twiceby Vikki Kestell.

Wild Heart on the Prairieby Vikki Kestell.

“Wild Heart on the Prairie” by Vikki Kestel

Brothers Jan and Karl Thoreson and their families have arrived in New York. Immigrants from Norway, they are headed to the Nebraska Territory and their intended claim of 160 acres each as part of the U.S. land-grant program. It is 1866; the American Civil War is over and the brothers, with no prospects in their home country to become farmers, are looking to create a new life. They are more fortunate than most immigrants: they come with solid middle-class resources and they have done their homework on what to expect, both when they land and when they travel and arrive in Nebraska.

But no amount of research can prepare them for the joy of owning their own land and for the hardship and heartbreak that will come from life in a new world – the storms, the locusts, the backbreaking work of busting sod, disease, and even death. They and their families will experience it all, their lives held together by their deep faith in God.

Wild Heart on the Prairie by Vikki Kestell tells the story of the Thoreson families as they carve out a new life on the former prairies of Nebraska. It also tells the story of what immigrants experienced as they arrived and traveled to their final destinations; how small-town life (and neighbors) helped sustain existence; how people built their farms, communities, and churches; and how they endured great personal tragedies. First published in 2014, it is a historical novel that falls in the “faith-filled, inspirational” genre. It is such a good read that I had difficulty putting it down, so I didn’t; I read it straight through in far less than a day. 

Vikki Kestell

Wild Heart on the Prairie is the second of eight books in “A Prairie Heritage” series. Before beginning her writing career, Kestell worked in government, academia, and corporate arenas, holding a Ph.D. degree in Organizational Learning and Instruction. She has also written four books in the “Nanostealth” series, three in “Girls from the Mountain” series, and several in the “Laynie Portland Spy” series, as well as a Bible study entitled “Growing Up in God.”

To learn in a fictional way about how immigrants settled the American Midwest, and how they survived all that life (and nature) threw at them, read Wild Heart on the Prairie. It is a moving book that often evokes tears while it tells a beautiful story. 

Related: 

“A Rose Blooms Twice” by Vikki Kestel.