Pearl by Lauraine Snelling

The legacy of the Dove House continues in Pearl, the second book in Lauraine Snelling's Dakota Treasures series. Ruby, Opal and the ladies of the Dove House are joined by Pearl, a school teacher who harbors physical and emotional scars as well as a secret that she is running from. The ladies bind together to face more unexpected circumstances – some good, some bad. As romance blossoms, trouble brews. Pearl is running from an arranged marriage, money is still tight for Ruby and Opal has picked up some disturbing habits. In the end, only by trusting in God will each woman come to find rest, joy and love.

I liked this book, although I did not think it was as good as the first book in the series, Ruby. The beginning was a little slow. However, about a fourth of the way through, the book captured my interest and I enjoyed reading the rest of it. The one thing that bothered me about the book was that although we know Pearl's mother died and Pearl has a scar, we never quite find out the complete circumstances about the incident. It is possible that this may be explained in one of the later books in the series. The first book in the series also had a lot of openness to the ending. I definitely would not recommend reading this book without first reading Ruby as it was heavily built upon the first book.