Northern Lights Trilogy by Lisa Bergren

A flirtatious runaway, an ambitious woman who wants to travel with her sea-captain husband, and a pirate disguised as an English gentleman. These are just some of the interesting characters in this enjoyable and adventure-filled trilogy about Norwegians who migrate to America in the Victorian era.  It is easy to feel that you are becoming friends with most of the people in these books as you follow their journeys towards love and faith. Religion plays an important part in the novels which may annoy people who just want to read a historical novel, but I didn’t think that this was overdone, and it added to my enjoyment of the book.

Lisa T. Bergren's books certainly involve a wide sweep of characters and settings.  There are exotic settings, such as Hawaii and Japan, and pioneering tales about the difficult life in the Wild West. Some real historical characters such as the Emperor of Japan are mentioned, and I also liked this. Bergen is especially good at creating atmosphere.

Her novels do have a few flaws, however.  The characters sometimes used extremely modern expressions that clashed with the historic setting.  I also found her writing a bit amateurish and much too wordy, on occasion.

However, it was a relaxing trilogy to read, and I recommend it if you like Christian historical novels.