When Dad asks Andrew to postpone his and Ellie’s anticipated June wedding till after harvest, the lovers are set on a roller-coaster ride. Highs of sweet togetherness and shared dreams are followed by plummets into lovers' misunderstandings and the challenges of circumstances, nature, and making a living from the land in Blessing, North Dakota, in 1900. But A Promise for Ellie, the first book in Lauraine Snelling’s Daughters of Blessing series, is much more than just a light romance.

Setting plays a large part in this pioneer tale. The folks in this close-knit Norwegian community do a lot of things together, from raising barns to sharing views about local news at quilting bees, to, of course, going to church. Ethnic expressions (like “uff da” and “mange takk”) and forms of address (“Mor” for Mom and “Far” for Dad) give the people an authentic feel. Snelling, evidentally renowned for her realistic portrayal of farming, performs true to form. You can practically hear the zing of the milk hitting the empty pail, feel the prick of straw through your shirt, and taste that homemade rhubarb pie - with coffee of course!

Snelling’s characters are another reason reading this book is great entertainment. Ellie Wold, the book’s female lead, is a delightful young woman - idealistic, likeable and hardworking; she matures noticeably during the five or so months the story encompasses. Andrew Bjorklund, the book’s main male character, is a sometimes contradictory young man who often doesn’t understand his own reactions, especially when he’s under pressure.

Ingeborg Bjorklund, Andrew’s mother, is another complex and interesting point-of-view character. (Ingeborg is not a new character to Snelling fans however, judging from the author’s “Dedication” and several inferences in the story to past happenings. As someone who has never read a book by Snelling before, I can assure readers new to her that despite not meeting Ingeborg before, I found the book stood up just fine on its own.) Finally, the multiplicity of unexplored minor female characters in the cast leaves many possibilities for heroines in Daughters of Blessing books to come.