Sarah M. Eden’s Ashes on the Moor is one of Shadow Mountain’s Proper Romances.  Set in Victorian Yorkshire, the book follows the plight of newly orphaned Evangeline Blake as she is thrust into being a self sufficient schoolteacher without any warning, training, or supplies. Desperate for help, Evangeline turns to the cantankerous Irish man who carried her trunk to the dismal schoolhouse. His grudging help eventually turns to an unlikely friendship.

The meticulously researched novel is touching on many levels, from the love story to the relationship Evangeline forges with her pupils, but the one that touched me the most was the bond between Evangeline and her younger sister, Lucy. The two of them are ruthlessly separated after their parents die even though Evangeline has promised that they will stay together. Getting Lucy back becomes the driving force in Evangeline’s life.

So much of the novel focuses on overcoming the challenges and circumstances in the lives of the characters, but Eden doesn’t content herself with everyone succeeding. Instead she furnishes a sharp contrast by realistically providing a few characters who don’t learn to look beyond themselves and remain stagnant. The selfishness of these people creates adversity for the rest of the town in varying degrees.

Evangeline, as the heroine, faces the most adversity, but her noble goal of caring for her sister impels her to action. She learns how to work while simultaneously learning not to judge. She finds a strength of character she didn’t know she had. She also discovers that character, not money, is the real mark of being a lady or a gentleman.

The novel also addresses prejudice and suspicions common between different classes, nationalities, language, and even social skill. Learning to look past our differences to embrace our commonalities is a recurring theme in the novel. Those who put their differences aside find their lives richly blessed. This is a lesson we can all learn!