"What Once Was Lost" by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Set in the late 1800s, this story revolves around many interconnected lives that are quite fluid.  Relationships blossom and relationships become distant.  But I'm not just talking about romantic relationships--I also mean friendships and business acquaintances.  Sawyer did an excellent job of fitting the others characters in.  You had just enough to know how they felt but not so much that you were distracted from the protagonist.  Also, there was not much romance in this book.  There is some, and the protagonist does end up marrying the other leading male character in the book (come on, is anyone surprised?).  However, what Sawyer managed to pull off was making the reader really fall in love with the people in the book.  Instead of some frilly historical fiction book where the characters act all 1800s flirtatious, her story was laced with plausible life circumstances, real life emotions, and not so pleasant travesties.  But the book felt real and you could feel yourself immersed in the story, in the small Kansas town.  I also enjoyed how the life of a little blind boy was tied into the plot.  The spiritual connections drawn based on his are truly deep and will hit you when you get to them.  I could go on, but, in essence, I highly recommend this book.  I had an advanced reading copy.  The only thing I was not too fond of was the protagonist would often say she felt things "in her breast."  I'd prefer the expression "in her heart," but that's just me.  Other than that, I enjoyed the book.