"Identical twin brothers are unjustly outcast from society and parted—

Rejected by New Orleans society, Johnny McKuen has escaped to Mexican frontier Texas. A childhood friend Tristan arrives, bearing Johnny’s neighbor, mortally wounded. The new widow Angel asks who shot her husband and started to scalp him?

Taking care of the family plantation Beau Rivage, Callum McKuen faces not only his brother’s scandal but men who want to force him to sell. He meets Minette, a young woman hiding her beauty beneath layers of clothing. Why? Shouldn’t she show off her beauty in order to find a husband?

The twins face these challenges as gentlemen. How can Johnny protect the new widow? And how can Callum protect Minette if she won’t trust him? A compelling parallel historical by a Carol Award-winning author you don’t want to miss!

“I found the story lines for both Callum and Johnny to be equally compelling. I liked the way the author went back and forth between the stories, so that I was aware of what was going on and the tension and danger building in both locations.”"

Quoted information above is from the book's Amazon sales page. The bulk of my review will be in the "further comments" section near the bottom.

People who like historical Christian fiction / romance, or regular historical romance and don't mind Christian elements.

The interwoven parts from previous books in the series.

There were some things that just didn't make sense to me, but maybe that's because of the differences in eras.

Know more about how the characters fared going forward.

Engaged and interested.

About the Author (from the book's Amazon sales page):
"Lyn Cote

Published for over twenty years, Lyn Cote lives in a cottage on a northwoods lake with her handy husband and entertaining cats.(She likes dogs too. In her everyday life, she is “normal.”

But in her writing life, she demonstrates the classic split personality. She writes two kinds of novels: contemporary Christian romantic suspense and historical Women’s Fiction, Family Sagas. Her masters degree is in American history and she loves researching eras filled with conflict. Lyn's brand "Strong Women, Brave Stories," always includes three elements: a strong heroine who is a passionate participant in her times, authentic historical detail and a multicultural cast of characters.

Her contemporaries focus on heroines faced with real life crises and unexpected changes and also usually includes a multicultural cast of characters. In both types of stories, Lyn celebrates the triumph of both human and divine love. No matter what her heroines and heroes face, they are not defeated.

Awards: Carol Award in Christian Fiction, two time winner of the HOLT Medallion Award, and 2005 finalist for the National Reader’s Choice Award and RWA’s RITA Award."

It was a good read.

This is the last (fourth) book in the series and I do recommend reading the series in order. I enjoyed the whole series and am glad that I read it. This wasn't my favorite book in the series, but it was worth reading, especially given its comparative shortness and furthering of the story lines from the previous books.

This was a good, quick, easy read for me. I liked that there were more prayers and a that there was more of feeling of true Christianity in this book. It was nice to have the twins' tale told and a bit of a furthering of Tristan's tale (a brother of the heart Rafe, hero of the last book, and Johnny and Callum, heroes of this book).

I loved the tributes to Sarah throughout the book (star of the second book) and the special tribute to Christianne and Sarah (SPOILER ALERT - please skip to the next paragraph if you don't want a spoiler)... naming Angel's baby after them, especially given the circumstances, was really touching to me.

(SPOILER ALERT - please skip to the next paragraph if you don't want a spoiler.) Having the two men's stories start in separate locations then converge and having that convergence be elemental to the emotional finale of the book was a nice touch.

I borrowed this book from the "Kindle Unlimited" program. I am not sure if I will keep this program, but I saved $2.99 over the current purchase price for the book. I might have waited until the book went on sale for $1.99 or less to buy it, but it was nice to finish the series this week.

It's weird to me that the first couple books were long and epic-like journeys. Then the last book was half the length, and this one was almost half of that. I think the last book was just right, length wise. This one, I can't believe I'm saying (I almost never think this), could have been longer. I wanted to know (SPOILER ALERT - please skip to the next paragraph if you don't want a spoiler) how Johnny managed to win over Angel's children and to have seen more of the romance between Callum and Minette. I also think there should have been some more transition between the last book and this one. In the last one, Callum was being tested to see how well he did at running the plantation, then this time his Dad came back and decided to sell! So what was the test all about? There was no resolution of that issue that I noticed. Maybe I missed something, but I thought it should have been addressed.

On the evening of July 9, 2025, the book ranked as follows on the Amazon "Best Sellers Rank: #82,983 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)

#224 in Christian Historical Fiction (Kindle Store)
#277 in Religious Historical Fiction (Kindle Store)
#286 in Historical Christian Romance Fiction"

Considering that it was published five years ago, that's not bad. I'm guessing that adding it to the Kindle Unlimited program boosts the ratings, but I am not sure how they count those books. Does just borrowing it count as a sale? Or do a certain number of pages have to be read? I would think borrowing it should count, but whether it does or not, I don't know.

It currently has an average 4.5 star rating on both Amazon and Goodreads, with 189 reviews on Amazon and 120 on Goodreads. I wish I could pick 4.5 ... it's hard to decide between four and five on this one. I'll probably go with 5 because of the Golden Rule.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Journey to Peace: Gripping and emotional historical fiction inspired by true events (The American Journey)   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jul 09, 2025 at 11:29pm • Submit your own review...