Superior Reads
by Tyler Tichelaar
Romance flourishes in Fayette books for Valentine’s Day
Donna Winters, resident of Fayette and author of the Great Lakes Romances series, has written a historical trilogy set in Fayette during its prime in the nineteenth century as well as reprinted a historical Fayette novel first published in 1870. Winters is the author of more than fifteen novels and also has reprinted several historical books about the Great Lakes region. She considers all her novels to be wholesome fiction suitable for ages twelve and up and most contain Christian themes. The Fayette Trilogy itself takes place from 1868-1890 and offers the love stories of two sisters and one of their daughters.
Fayette: A Time to Love
Set in 1868 when the town of Fayette was new, this first novel in the Fayette Trilogy introduces Lavinia McAd ams, a young woman who finds herself courted by a rough and tumble pig iron man. In the opening scene, Lavinia witnesses with disgust a fistfight between two Irish men. When one of those Irish men is invited to dinner by Lavinia’s father that same evening, Lavinia is shocked and displeased. Even after Huck Harrigan explains to her that the fight was staged and just an April Fool’s Day joke, she is not amused and tells him he’s a hoodlum. That he is a hard worker and her family likes him does not help him in winning her affections.
Fayette is a new and growing town at this time, spurred on by the Jackson Iron Company’s presence. Lavinia’s family has come to Fayette recently from Canada, but Lavinia remains unhappy in the town and plans to move back to Canada by the end of summer. Huck realizes he has a task ahead of him if he is to win her affections before she leaves. He manages to befriend her after he shares his own pain over his parents having drowned when the ship they were on sunk. He uses his parents’ death as an example that anger does not solve anything, but will that be enough to convince Lavinia to accept her life in Fayette and the possibility of loving him? That Huck loves Lavinia’s taffy tarts—for which the recipe is included in the book—doesn’t help his pain when Lavinia’s affections seem impossible to be won.
Fayette: A Time to Laugh
The second book in the trilogy takes place in 1879, eleven years after the first book. Flora, Lavinia’s somewhat troublesome little sister in the first book, is now grown up. The  book opens with Flora having a run in with Sven, a Norwegian immigrant and the new man in town. She chastises him when he snaps at her dog. Flora is an animal lover, having found a group of baby foxes in the first book, which has set her on a lifelong quest to care for animals. She now serves as a sort of town veterinarian, working with the local doctor, often collecting stray dogs and finding them good homes, as well as encouraging people to have them neutered.
Flora remains irritated by Sven until a dog is run over by a cart and Sven helps her to care for it. Gradually, she starts to warm toward him as he helps her to raise money for animals by raffling off a sleigh he fixes up, and then taking her to a dance; there he defends her from a man who turns out to be the story’s villain when he tries to force her to dance.
Sven has his own pain from his father’s suicide and missing his home back in Norway, which makes Flora feel sympathy for him, but when he tries to stop her from selling dogs to a man he dislikes, she becomes irritated. Can love bring these two together, despite all their differences?
Fayette: A Time to Leave
The final novel in the trilogy tells the story of Violet, daughter of Lavinia. Violet’s family now lives south of Fayette in Sac Bay, but when Violet’s father dies, the family returns to Fayette, causing Violet to mi ss her friends, including a young man named Guy Legard. The novel follows Violet from her move to Fayette in 1885, while barely a teenager, until 1891.
During that time, Violet grows up, adjusts to life in Fayette, falls in love with her childhood friend, Guy, and is hurt when he leaves town for nine months to work in the woods while she doesn’t hear from him. When Guy returns, he is in love with Violet and tries to explain he has been working to create a better life for them so they can marry. But by that time, a well-to-do young Easterner named Reggie has arrived in Fayette and wants Violet to return to Boston with him.
Meanwhile, the Jackson Iron Company is slowly shutting down and Violet’s family is considering moving back to Canada. Is it time to leave Fayette, and can matters of the heart be resolved before that happens?
All three volumes of the Fayette Trilogy offer interesting looks into the entertainments and courtship rituals of days past. From the town racetrack to New Year’s Eve and anniversary parties, dances, boating outings, and making taffy tarts, not to mention working in the dirty furnaces, plenty happens to keep the people of Fayette occupied and for the young people to cross each other’s paths and fall in love. The novels are charmingly old-fashioned with believable characters who at times may have fiery tempers, but also have hearts open to love once they overcome the obstacles in their way.
Snail-Shell Harbor by J.H. Langille
Written in 1870, Snail-Shell Harbor is a novel that documents the early years of Fayette. The author, J. H. Langille, was nephew to the town’s first doctor, and wrote the book after visiting the town in the summe r of 1868. The novel is of historical interest for its descriptions of the town and the life and death struggles of its pioneer residents in its early days.
The novel’s plot centers on the effort to bring Christianity to the fledgling community. It can be considered part of a subgenre of child evangelism literature of the Victorian period with the primary viewpoint being that of a young boy who is won over to Christianity. The story evolves as children are recruited to attend Sunday School, and their influence then leads to the conversion of their parents and the building of a church.
Snail-Shell Harbor is probably the first novel ever set in Upper Michigan, and author Donna Winters has reprinted the text with the original illustrations. The book’s tone may be unusual for modern readers, but anyone who knows Fayette will enjoy discovering the historical details revealed in the novel’s pages and imagining what life was like fishing in the harbor or working in the iron industry when Fayette was young.
The novel’s details are so accurate that today the Fayette Historic State Park quotes from it on many of its interpretive signs to describe what this company town looked like in the late 1860s.
Donna Winters’ books are available at www.GreatLakesRomances.com
A brochure of all her titles can be requested by writing to: Great Lakes Romances, P.O. Box 85, Garden, MI 49835.
–– Tyler Tichelaar
Editor’s Note: Tichelaar is the author of My Marquette. For book review submission guidelines, visit www.mmnow.com
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