Written on the Wind

Written on the Wind is the newest novel by one of my favorite Christian fiction authors: Elizabeth Camden. It is the second book in the Blackstone Legacy series, which centers around a rich American banking family. It can be read independently, though it is fun to see the characters we already know and love from totally different eyes.

In this story we follow Natalia Blackstone as she oversees the funding for the Trans-Siberian Railway. She is very good at banking and keeping everything under control, and has devoted her life to this. Her home situation is not ideal, with her stepmom who is always jealous. She very bravely decides to move and take control of her own life. I really love how she stood up for herself, without hurting anyone in the process, always thinking about how it will impact other people.

In book 1 we had this hilarious telegram conversation between her and a Russian count, where it takes hour for him to help Natalia because he wants to make lots and lots of small talk first. Honestly, this is the vibe of this book. Count Dimitri is too charming for his own good, and loves talking. He oversees the railroad, but when he suddenly is in the middle of a massacre of a village of indigenous people who are in the way of the rail road. He is forced to participate in this slaughter but refuses, which earns him the status of traitor and gets him on a train himself – off to Siberia. He valiantly escapes and encounters lots of horrors before he finally gets to Natalia himself. They corresponded by telegram for years, but now in real life, there might be even more electricity (get it? Telegrams are wired through electric pulses. Yeah ok it’s not a very good pun). I love this long distance relationship, where they have to rediscover themselves when they finally meet. It’s a very good slow burn romance, and I really loved it. Dimitri is the opposite of Natalia, he’s very extraverted, loves a good laugh, loves his luxury and seems a bit shallow, but there’s a whole deeper side to him too. Natalia seems very serious and deep, but with Dimitri she discovers a fun side of herself. While Dimitri is a fun character to read about, I have to say I got a little exasperated at him at times. He’s just not my type, thankfully he’s Natalia’s and I love them together. The story was so interesting, and Elizabeth Camden always makes boring history facts fun. Like how business transactions went in the early 1900s, seems boring, but is in fact really cool. The making of music records on wax is amazing! The inner workings of a bank had me hooked. I kinda wished we’d seen a little bit more about Russia (I have to admit the troubles in Russia are eerily familiar with current events).

For me the first half of the book was amazing! Dimitri’s escape, his romance with Natalia, I’m here for it. The second half lost a little steam (yup another pun),. The ending was really nice, but after such a riveting start, this book just had a lot to live up to and for me it didn’t entirely do that. That’s why I’m giving four stars, because the rest of this story is amazing, and I still flew right through the story, the pacing just felt a little off. I do recommend this story 100% and can’t wait for book 3!

I received a free e-arc through Netgalley, this has not influenced my opinion.