The Practice House

By: Laura McNeal

Narrated by: Angela Dawe

Nineteen-year-old Aldine McKenna is stuck at home with her sister and aunt in a Scottish village in 1929 when two Mormon missionaries ring the doorbell. Aldine's sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she's meant to lead and the person she's meant to love.

In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can't possibly imagine: drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price - the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad - and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she's settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.

Laura McNeal's novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving - and finding - home.

©2017 Laura McNeal (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Simplicity

Thoroughly enjoying A complex story told brilliantly I couldn't put it down. Listened in two sittings

Historical Romance

Didn’t think I would like this, but I loved it. Realistically told story, with intertwining characters. A great understanding of the “dust bowl” in Kansas and it’s affect on families and farming. Would read another story by Laura McNeal and “loved the Scottish” lilt by Angela Dawe.

Unexpected Love Story

A riveting, unexpected love story. Although it starts out a little slow and is actually a bit tedious in the beginning, the story evolves and begins to take on beautiful life of its own. Truthfully, I have started and stopped this book three times since 2017 and finally persevered past the first 50 pages. The initial beginning of the book in Scotland and New York is a bit uninteresting and feels like it's going nowhere, but if you keep reading, it begins to develop into a meaningful and quite remarkable story. At the point where Aldine leave NYC and arrives in Kansas to accept a non-existent teaching position, I couldn't put it down. And I really loved it when the Price family moves to Fallbrook, CA (my hometown) to start a new life. I so appreciate the many wonderful and well researched historical references. Superbly narrated by Angela Dawe, listening to the Audible version really helped a lot! I both read and listened to the book, depending on if I was in the car (listening) or at home (reading). I feel like the story embodies Disney's "perfect equation” of both happiness and sadness -- for every smile there is a tear. Beautiful character and story development. Both a heart wrenching and a heart warming story. Laura McNeal is a fine writer and I look forward to her next novel.

loved it!

I loved this book. it was a bit slow to start but once I got into it I couldn't wait to read more. the narrator was very credible and I loved her Scottish accent.

outstanding story and narration

I couldn't put it down. This drama should become a major motion picture. can't wait to see it.