Grace in Thine Eyes
by Liz Curtis Higgs
Published by WaterBrook Press
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Reviewed by Carrie Padgett
Scotland and the Isle of Arran are as fully developed as any of the flesh-and-blood characters of Liz Curtis Higgs's newest book, Grace in Thine Eyes. Not part of her earlier historical fiction series, Grace is a stand-alone book that tells the biblical story of Dinah. Some of the characters from Thorn in My Heart, Fair is the Rose, and Whence Came a Prince, appear in Grace, but Jamie and Leana's daughter Davina, is the focal character.
Left mute by a childhood accident, Davina is a gifted fiddler and artist. She journeys to the Isle of Arran to spend the summer with her cousins, and there she entertains the local nobility so that he invites her to become the entertainment for the rest of his stay.
The lovely lass with the lively bow but silent tongue beguiles one of the duke's guests. Used to having his way with women, Somerled MacDonald mistakes Davina's naivete for coquettishness and "ruins" her and her maidenhood.
As gossip spreads across the bay to the Scottish mainland, both Davina's father and her protective brothers hear the rumors and travel to Arran. A tragedy on the rocky island hills snatches away Davina's hope of a restored reputation and a future marriage.
For a textbook course on the growth of a writer, read Higgs's earlier contemporary romances followed by her Scottish trilogy. Her skill grows with each book, and is well displayed in Grace in Thine Eyes.
Higgs is gifted in taking a familiar Bible story and retelling it in a new setting, allowing her readers a glimpse of how Dinah, Jacob, Leah, and their sons might have felt and reacted to impossible situations.
By the time I closed the book, I left behind not just my dear friend Davina and her fiddle, but a windswept home on a rocky green island across Brodick Bay.
Armchair Interviews says: Higgs's prose is lyrical when describing Scotland, but her special skill is crafting characters that leap off the page and into our hearts.