I recently read The Heart’s Bidding by Jordan Riley Swan. I received an advance reader copy, and I am so glad I signed up to get it. It was excellent, and if you like gentle romance, family drama, and a persevering heroine, you will love this book.
This story is about Kaylee Heart. She is a young woman running her family antique store business for her grandfather in the wake of a tragic accident where her parents were killed. To make a go of it, she has resorted to supplementing the business with online auctions, only to find out the state laws require her to have an auctioneer’s license.
She goes to auctions regularly to find great pieces to refinish for the business, and she knows a woman who runs an auction school. It seems like it will be easy to save the failing family business by going to auction school. The reward? Running her online auctions legally so the antique store can thrive, and spending more time around the handsome auctioneer who is teaching this class. The problem? She gets physically ill speaking in public, and the business is so threatened she can’t afford auction school.
Kaylee’s problems just get worse from here, and continue for the length of the book. Swan sets up a great character I sympathize with right away, and immediately made things difficult for her. It was so gripping I had to keep turning the page to figure out how she resolved everything. I had a hard time putting the book down. I genuinely loved this character and hated all the things that got thrown her way – financial disaster, humiliation, physical pain, emotional trauma, this book had it all. But it just made the story better. As a writer, I was so impressed with the author’s ability to keep the tension and trouble heightened all the way through the book.
This story features a very gentle romance. It was just what I like – important to the story, but not the only thing the book was about. The main character had PLENTY of other problems to solve. That’s not to say that the road to happily ever after was a stroll in the park, because the author complicates romance for Kaylee and her man also.
As I research Jordan Riley Swan, this appears to be a debut novel. I am impressed that it turned out so strong. The cover art is fantastic too. I will definitely watch for more work from this author.
