Lately I’ve read two two books set during the time of World War I—also known as the Great War—both by Naomi Musch. The Deepest Sigh is set in rural northern Wisconsin as war looms in Europe, while the U.S. is being drawn in. 

Her other book, Polly, also takes place in northern Wisconsin, right after the war ends. I featured it on the blog last month. 

Author Terri Wangard has written at least two World War I novels. The Storm Breaks Forth shows the war’s impact on Germans living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Read about it on my May 2022 post. 

The Deepest Sigh is the first of Naomi’s Echoes of the Heart series, followed by The Softest Breath and The Brightest Hope, both set in the 1920s.

Blurb

Seventeen-year-old Marilla Eckert is in love with Langdon Prescott, her family’s hired hand, and is determined to win him. Yet she remains blissfully unaware of the secret passion he feels for her older sister Delia. When Delia weds another, Lang finally turns to Marilla. Leaving his heart out of it, he sweeps her off her feet, and Marilla’s dreams of marrying him come true. Too late, she realizes where his devotion truly lies, but she presses on, convinced she can still gain his love.

Then America steps into the Great War. The men are sent a world away to fight, and Marilla’s cares, coupled with the lack of her husband’s favor, finally wear her thin. When heartache and disaster strike on every front, and Marilla’s hour of need leads her searching for comfort, will all of them wind up too broken to ever find their hearts’ true homes?

***************

My Thoughts

Marilla Eckert has it all worked out. Marry handsome Langston Prescott, her father’s farmhand, and live happily ever after. 

The only problem is, he’s in love with Rilla’s older, spunkier, and prettier sister Delia. But nobody knows that when Delia marries someone else. 

To Marilla’s delight, Lang turns his attentions to her instead. They end up married, but not so happily. 

When Delia’s husband goes off to war, Lang tries to win her over by checking in on her whenever he can, under the guise of helping around the house and yard. But soon, Lang is drafted, too, and heads overseas. 

Meanwhile, a childhood friend, Jacob Hessman the grocer, checks in on Marilla from time to time, comforting her through sickness and hardship.

I got very invested in Rilla and her plight, and was rooting for her the whole way. At first I wanted to slap Lang whenever he popped up. This kept me reading. I really wanted to see how it played out.

Even though I didn’t like Lang in the first half of the book, he does some soul searching while off at war and, well, it’s better if you read the story yourself rather than have me say too much. But I will say that Rilla’s character arc evolves from a naive girl with her head in clouds to wiser and more independent, trying to do the right thing.

There’s Lang more grown up . . . and there’s good-hearted Jacob. I’m not going to give spoilers, but I will confess that the ending didn’t go my way. However, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth my while to accompany these characters on their journeys. 

A couple of things bothered me. Why didn’t Rilla’s dad tell her about Lang’s flaws when he talked to her about courting? Dad was too vague, but he suspected something. Also, I would have liked a scene later in the book with Rilla and Delia discussing the issue regarding Lang. The two sisters had a good relationship, so it makes sense this would have been shared. 

With an easygoing writing style and three-dimensional characters in a sticky situation, this is a worthwhile book to delve into. I’m guessing you’ll have strong opinions (as I did) about how it should resolve. Let me know if it turns out to your liking. 

Join me for some Q & A with author Naomi Musch.

Questions about The Deepest Sigh

What inspired you to write this story? What’s your personal connection to the setting?

I imagine that many who have ever read the Biblical account of Jacob pursuing Rachel but ending up with her sister Leah, only to also marry Rachel later on, has had questions about those people. After all, the story tells us that Jacob loved Rachel more. How did Leah ever bear being his wife while he pined for her sister? How did she stand it, bearing him all those children, knowing that he would never love her like he loved her sister? 

So, I wrote The Deepest Sigh while wondering how that would look in a different time and setting. Well, not that exactly, because of the plural marriage. But how would it feel during WWI to be wed to a man who married you only as second best and still loved your sister, even afterward? And after you’d given him children and the best you had to offer? 

I wrote The Deepest Sigh, set on a Wisconsin farm, with those questions in mind. It’s not a re-telling of the Bible story, but it certainly sprung from it, and it became a story of whether such a difficult marriage could find healing or not. I mean, how far can forgiveness go, if it’s even offered at all?

What did you know about your characters, particularly Marilla and Lang, at the outset and what did you learn about them during the writing process?

I knew from the outset that readers would experience a revulsion toward Lang. I wanted to write an anti-hero. I set out to see how far his story arc could go. In fact, the complete Echoes of the Heart series became a writing challenge to me personally on developing difficult male story arcs. It was SO FUN to write! 

In book two, The Softest Breath, my male protagonist is a different type. He doesn’t feel nearly as difficult as Lang, because he’s a genuinely likeable guy with terrific hero qualities, but he has a pridefulness in him that needs conquering. Haha! 

When I got to the end of writing that story, I asked myself if the real antagonist (another character, no spoilers) could ever be redeemed, and that sent me into writing book three, The Brightest Hope. I have to say, that protagonist turned out to be one of the more challenging and real characters I think I’ve ever written. I may have enjoyed writing that story most of all the series.

As for Marilla, she was hard to write, because she starts out so young and immature and needs to develop a lot of growth through the story. She has a very big character arc too. Because of her youth, it took a long time to find her voice, but I think that’s true of individual growth and maturity in general. She’s young, and while she was learning who she was, I was learning alongside her. 

I think the three heroines in this series are all very different personality types. It’s a writer’s challenge to do that, and I feel very satisfied with the results in this series.

Without giving any spoilers, did you consider different endings for this story? Did you have a particular plan all along, or does it reveal itself as you write? 

Ah, great question! No, I did not consider different endings. I did have a plan. I knew precisely the arc I was aiming for. The question was whether I could pull it off or not. Some readers went away holding a grudge and others offered forgiveness to my anti-hero, which gives me insight into readers’ personalities as well.

Incidentally . . . the fact that a person might wish for an alternative ending may have subconsciously been a point in writing the next book in the series. There was a character in The Deepest Sigh who, I believed, needed his own story. I realized about halfway into the book that he deserved a happier ending, as it were. That was my impetus to write The Softest Breath. 

Do you prefer writing from the man’s or woman’s perspective? What are the challenges of each, especially in a WWI setting?

I don’t know that I have a preference at all, but I do like getting into my male characters’ psyche. That could be from raising three boys (and two girls as bookends). I’ve learned a lot from my strong-willed menfolk. I love Joanne Bischof’s Sons of Blackbird Mountain because the three brothers in that story remind me so much of my boys.

With a WWI setting, I had to consider what a man might feel about being called up to serve and how that would affect their sense of obligation to their homes, families, farms, and so on. I have a son in the military, so I do have some insight into those issues.

How would you compare Marilla your other heroines? What would Marilla say about you?

Marilla is a very old-fashioned girl, non-assuming and gracious (maybe to a fault). She would say my writing about her was pretty accurate, and wouldn’t complain. I’m a homebody, and I apply a lot of the old-farm practices, so maybe we connect that way. 

Gwen, in the second book would be a little embarrassed about certain parts of her past, but would feel it important to tell. Holly, in book three, might point out some changes she would make if it were her writing the story. But afterward would probably shrug and say, “Have it your way,” and I would feel compelled to listen to her. 

Holly, incidentally, is the eldest of my three heroines in the series. However, Gwen has probably had more life experience coming into her situation. You know, women grow up fast during war years.

I like to vary the life experience behind my heroines, but I give them a lot of room to grow. I think I gravitate toward younger heroines who have some Big Thing to learn about life—about themselves. Yet most ofttimes, the lesson is not restricted by age. 

My novella The Angel and The Sky Pilot, available for pre-order in Barbour’s Courting the Country Preacher collection, features a young woman who lives with her father, a retired Great Lakes merchant ship captain, at their trading post in the northern Minnesota woods. She has very little experience of the world, yet she’s been surrounded by woodsmen all her life, and she knows how to handle herself more in a man’s world than a woman’s. 

I realized after writing it, that other than a mention of other ladies, she is the only female in the story. So, she’s not shy and she’s not afraid to give her mind. She’s never been inside a church, but she’s hungry for the Word. And she’s never met a man like the traveling preacher. It’s a sweet old-fashioned love story with vigor. I think even male readers would enjoy it, and that’s something I often aim for.

What’s the most unusual thing you had to do or research to create this story? Which fascinating facts did you uncover?  

Hm . . . maybe not unusual, but this one did almost get me in a pickle. When I was researching my novel The Black Rose (Empire in Pine, book three), I drove up to the northeast corner of Wisconsin where it spills into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (the other Wisconsin, Haha!) 

I was investigating the area around Hurley and Gile, and I drove up a long gravel road around the backside of a lake, where I saw a sign to a waterfall. I decided to investigate further, only I ended up driving on a four-wheeler trail—in a car with bad tires. Over boulders. Where there was no cell service.

I didn’t go far before I started to sweat and decided to turn around and get out of there. As I wiggled around into a narrow opening, about fifty four-wheelers came by in a long line. No one paused to ask if I needed any help. The riders just all looked at me like I was some kind of idiot—which was a pretty accurate assessment. 

Later that day on the trip home, my phone died (yep, forgot to pay the bill). I was so thankful it hadn’t happened out there. What if I’d broken down? What if I would have had to hike five miles out of the dirt roads? Eek.

On that journey, I did get a really good lay of the land for my story. I could easily picture where logging camps might have stood, and what it would have taken to drive a wagon or ride a horse into town.

Most of my research is done online. I used Google earth when I was charting my course down Canadian rivers into the Great Lakes and up from the Mississippi. I watch many reels of history channels on YouTube. I scroll through documents and records of various state history sites. I can get lost down rabbit holes that start in Wisconsin and end up in Pennsylvania. And of course, history books. I’m always buying or borrowing a ton of those.

When I previously asked you about which book is the best introduction to you and your works, you chose The Deepest Sigh. Out of 13 published full-length novels and 3 novellas (you mentioned some books are out of print), why did you choose this one? 

I think I gravitated toward that series because I knew more about myself as a writer by the time I wrote those stories, and I used them to dig deeper into what I was capable of writing. Of course, there was the added challenge of those complicated male characters. 

I think for anyone not wanting to deal with that kind of anti-hero protagonist, I would point to my Voyageurs series—Mist O’er the Voyageur, and Song for the Hunter as another good choice, and perhaps more traditional to the historical romance genre. Mist was a Selah finalist and two-time Book of the Year nominee.

But just so readers know, I never leave a cliff-hanger ending in my novels, even if they’re part of a series. Readers can have full closure and always a get a happy ending. Like it says in my bio, I write to change the story, because that’s what God does in our lives. He changes our stories. Even in the most miry circumstances, He sets our feet upon a rock and establishes our goings (Psalm 40:2).

********************

Back to Laura . . . On a similar note . . . 

If you like historical fiction set in the Midwest, you might enjoy my novel, A Hundred Magical Reasons. This story spotlights L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, his friendship with a young girl, and his impact through the decades. Set in Holland, Michigan, this dual timeline novel alternates between 1980 and the early 1900s. Read more and watch the book trailer here. The story recently won a Scrivenings Press novel contest and will be published by them in January, 2025!

If you like small town/rural stories about family dynamics and secrets, you might enjoy my re-launched novel All That Is Hidden. Set near North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains in 1968, the story spotlights the bond of family and the connections of a tight-knit community. Northern exploitation threatens as a father’s hidden past catches up to him and tests family ties. Learn more and watch the trailer here.

All That Is Hidden awards:

• Winner of the Artisan Book Reviews Book Excellence Award
• Semifinalist in Serious Writer’s Book of the Decade contest

I invite you to join my monthly newsletter for writing updates, freebies, and giveaways. Sign up and I’ll send you a free gift: www.StandoutStoriesNewsletter.com

**************************

Naomi Musch Bio

Naomi Muschwrites to bring hope that will change the story—maybe even her own. Her historical novels have been award finalists in the Carol Awards; the Faith, Hope, and Love Readers’ Choice Awards; the Selah Awards; and twice for Book of the Year. She has won multiple short story awards. Naomi is at home in the Wisconsin Northwoods, where her perfect day is spent writing, roaming her family’s farm, snacking from the garden, or kayaking a nearby lake, relaxing in her vintage camper, and most especially, loving on her passel of grandchildren. Learn more on her website. 

*****************

Join me next time for a visit with author Cynthia Ruchti.

Meanwhile, have you read The Deepest Sigh or any others by Naomi Musch? Do you gravitate to World War I stories? Answer in the comments below.

Ever reading,

Laura

Sign up for my monthly newsletter and receive the prequel for All That Is Hidden: www.StandoutStoriesNewsletter.com