Grace Livinston Hill - Not Under the Law

When I was 12, my family moved in with my grandparents. We stayed for 5 months - in a 2-bedroom home that was roomy for a retired couple, but not meant to hold 8. It was an interesting experience, to say the least.

Along with the awe of the wood-burning stove, camping in the backyard in the summer in an attempt to make the house seem less crowded, missing my old friends, swimming in the lake across the road, and the constant fear of breaking one of my Granny's beautiful dishes, (or even more beautiful figurines) I remember the bookshelf.

I have always been a voracious reader, but during those 5 months I immersed myself in anything I could get my hands on. Granny had a large collection of Jannette Oke and Grace Livinston Hill novels, and I read every one.

I recently re-read some of her Grace Livingston Hills, and found them as amusing as ever. She wrote close to a hundred, if not more. The ones I have read seem similar in many ways. There is always a love story, though the hero and heroine may not spend much time together. The heroine usually needs saving, though she often does her own share of saving the boy. There are some absolutely heinous villains you will love to hate, and most importantly, the heroine usually goes on some kind of adventure, whether it involves running out of church on her wedding day or buying and renovating an old barn for her family to live in.

This book is one of my favourite because of the adventure element. The heroine runs away from her evil aunt and uncle, walking all night and travelling by train until she reaches a cozy little town, where she buys a tiny 1-room "demo" home about to be demolished. She then convinces one of the townspeople to let her rent a corner of her property to put her house on. Throughout the rest of the book she stretches the meager contents of her wallet, sews her own clothes, makes her own furniture, and does odd jobs around the town to earn her keep. Meanwhile, her friends in the town she left search for her, she is wooed by a man who admires her gentle, truthful ways but wants to change them, and her childhood friend is framed for murder.

Hill's novels are sweet, idyllic slices of romanticized life in the early 1900's. The stories are simple but uplifting, and always interesting. The heroines are wonderful role models for young girls: gentle and loving, yet strong, independent, and sometimes even tough. They remind me a little bit of my Granny - and she is a lady worth admiring.