Adult Review - Land of Dreams - adult historical fiction

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About the Book

Book: Land of Dreams (Home to Green Creek Series Book One)

Authors: Lauraine Snelling with Kiersti Giron

Genre: FICTION / Christian / Historical

Release date: April 1, 2025

From Norway to America, they must strive for resilience amid unpromising new beginnings.

On the ship to America, Norwegian immigrant Amalia Gunderson makes a solemn promise to a dying mother, vowing to watch over her five-year-old daughter, Ruth. Together, Amalia and Ruth trek to Iowa to claim the farm and former boardinghouse that Ruth has inherited, despite opposition from a difficult cousin. Struggling with an empty house and scarce resources, Amalia resolves to return the boardinghouse to its former purpose, aided by the kindness of strangers and the resilient spirit of her young charge.

As Amalia and Ruth fight for their new home, a trail of orphans shows up on their doorstep, and Amalia makes a promising friend in Absalom Karlsson, the magistrate’s son. With each challenge they face, Amalia and Ruth find hope in believing that faith and determination can overcome even the most daunting of trials.

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My Adult Review

Snelling, Lauraine. Land of Dreams. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2025.

Home to Green Creek book 1

It has been a while since I read anything by Lauraine Snelling. Land of Dreams is just as good as I remember her other books being. I love how I learn more about Norwegian culture as I read these stories of Norwegians who have immigrated to the United States.

The story starts on Amalia’s voyage from Norway to the United States soon after her parents were buried at sea, the result of a cholera epidemic. She has been nursing others, becoming close friends with some of her patients. So close, in fact, that she is asked to become the guardian of a young girl as her mother lay dying.

Home to Green Creek is the story of Amalia and Ruth’s journey to Ruth’s inheritance in Iowa and the struggle they go through to restore the property and make it prosperous again for Ruth’s future. They face the adversary of a distant relative who has become a squatter on the property, believing that it is rightfully hers. Amalia has a big heart and brings together a wide variety of personalities and forms a family as they work together to restore the boarding house.

As always, Snelling weaves together Biblical truths and history into her storyline. I always look forward to reading her work. I can’t wait for the next book in the Home to Green Creek series.

While Land of Dreams is written for adults, there is nothing to keep it from being added to a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for eighth grade and up.

I received a complimentary copy of Land of Dreams. This is my honest review.

About the Author – Lauraine Snelling

Lauraine Snelling is the award-winning author of more than one hundred books, fiction and nonfiction, for adults and young adults. Her books have sold more than five million copies. She makes her home in Tehachapi, California.

More from Lauraine Snelling

Different stories come about different ways. One of the things I’ve learned through these years of writing is the value of slowly waking up and paying attention to what was going on in my mind. I saw a young woman standing at the railing of a ship tossing on rough seas. A gray day. And I heard the splash as her father’s body sank into the waves. I sniffed, mopped my eyes and settled back, hopefully to sleep awhile longer. But the dream, if that was what it was, continued. A little girl named Rut, or Ruthie, joined Amalia at the rail, slipped her hand into the young woman’s and asked if she could please come, her mother wanted to see her. And my internal game of what if continued for these people on a cholera attacked ship from Norway to Amerika.

I knew a new story had begun but had no idea where it was going. As I said, I treasure that time between sleeping and waking when I can part the curtains to my subconscious mind and see what it has been playing with. What a gift God has created in us.

Around about the same time, something brought a story that one of my aunts on my father’s side told me when I asked her what she remembered of her growing up years. Auntie Harriet chuckled and asked, “Have you heard of the rutabaga years?” I shook my head and settled in to listen. They were a family of eleven children, my dad being the eldest, they lived in a big two story house with a huge garden, a flock of chickens and bad weather. Late spring freeze, early fall freeze and much of the produce killed off. All but the root crops, and rows of rutabagas. Many were dug and stored in the cellar, lots left in the ground, to be dug up later. Rutabagas can be fried, boiled, mashed, grated, turned into soup and stew, mixed with other vegetables, added to pancakes, even turned into pie. Ah, yes, the rutabaga years, Auntie Harriet said she didn’t particularly care for rutabagas for a long time after that. But in the mean time, they became part of Amalia and Ruthie’s new life at a big house Ruthie inherited in Green Creek. North and West of Decorah Iowa in 1819. Come join a delightful cast of characters in Land of Dreams.