Lorraine Beatty

A friend (MH) sent me this book in a box of books.

For some reason, from the book, I got the idea that Sam (the dog) was a big dog. The dog on the cover of the book is not a big dog.

What I liked:
*The growth in the main characters. Discussions of family legacies and how to overcome the bad ones and proceed with the good ones.
*The support groups each attends and the good friends they have at them.

What I didn't like:
*The short time frame of the romance (less than a school year). There's no previous relationship between the two that was based on anything of substance, yet they're married by the end of the book.
*The sentence by the aunt and uncle seems odd--apparently a lot of influence used on the judge to approve it. The aunt comes off as bitter, scheming (and apparently an alcoholic--unless all the bottles had belonged to Bobby Lee and she just never cleared them out--which is possible.)

Indifferent:
*The job offer at the end of the book. On one hand, I like that Jake is getting a job he wants and will probably be good at. On the other hand, it means moving away from the support systems and friends they have.… (meer)

I might actually give this 3.5 stars (rating shown may differ depending on whether site allows half star ratings). A friend (MH) sent me this book in a box of books. I haven't read books in this series before--in fact, I was a bit confused as to whether the town name was DoOver or Dover because it wasn't explained in this book until a bit later in the narrative.

The main female character (Beth) was a prima ballerina who dedicated herself to her career to the exclusion of most else. The main male character (Noah) is a divorced structural engineer who has a daughter.

Another confusing part (to me) was that Beth claims she told Noah she loved him and he rejected her.
Yet, Noah claims he loved Beth but she didn't love him. (The reason for this is revealed later in the book--but it did leave me wondering if I'd misinterpreted something until that point.)

Honestly, in real life, I'd probably tell these two to get counseling (from a pastor or a marriage counselor) to improve their communication skills. For two people who claim to have been so "connected" when they were younger, they don't always communicate well with each other--I think they both jump to a lot of conclusions and assume they know what the other was thinking when there's a different reason behind what happened.

The extra half-star (rare for me to give a Love Inspired more than 3 stars) is from:
*the engaging characters
*understanding the difficulty Beth has with wondering who she is if she's not dancing on stage with the dance company she was part of for so many years. It's not easy to have had your dream and then lose it. It's also normal to wonder what comes next. (Considering we read that Beth had a hand in developing the ballet that she was rehearsing when she hurt herself, I wondered why professional choreographer didn't occur to her sooner, but . . .)
*the lesson that both Beth and Noah relearn about putting God first and relying on Him instead of themselves.
*the life lesson that all humans will at some point let us down (hopefully not as often as Chloe's mother does though).… (meer)

A friend sent me this is in a box of Love Inspired books. It earns a 3 (average) mostly for the faith-life lessons. The story seems pretty much recycled--it almost seems like Love Inspired has outlines they give their authors and expect them to follow by plugging in their own characters and making events to fit--all of which left me checking to see if I'd read this book in the past because it seemed so familiar. (I hadn't.)

Control: It's something both Gemma and Linc struggle with. Linc struggles to keep things from changing. I think partly because he's already had significant changes in his life with his father dying and having to take over running the family business. Gemma's been hurt in the past and is trying to prevent that from happening again as well as protecting her son from life's hurts.

To some extent, I can see Gemma's point in that she doesn't want to have Evan getting attached to a man only to have it not work out between that man and Gemma. It's probably not good for a kid to keep thinking he'll have a dad only to have that father-figure ripped away. But we, as readers, get a glimpse of how much Evan wants a father-figure in his life, and I do have to wonder, as Linc did, if there wasn't a way that Gemma could have discussed Evan's father with him rather than just never talking about it at all.

As far as Linc, well, I both understand his not wanting things to change, his desire for traditions to continue, and see the pitfalls of holding on to them so hard that it drives others away or stunts his own growth.

Another reviewer said she felt like the Montgomery family was all a bit self-centered. Each doing what he/she needed to heal without considering other members of the family and their needs. It's a fine line. If one's mental health truly is at stake (as Tori seemed to feel hers was), then doing what you need to do is what you need to do, regardless of whether your brother feels like the entire family needs to stay together in town. When a child's welfare is at stake (as in Gil's case), you need to be taking care of that, regardless of whether your brother would prefer you stayed in Mississippi rather than be in Alabama fighting for custody. But I also agree that discussing some of the changes with Linc before just making them and surprising him with them would have been helpful too. (such as the white Christmas tree or wanting to change the Thanksgiving dinner type). It did seem like no one seemed to care about the traditions he cherished.

The subseries title is a bit confusing. Yes, Gemma and Evan end up finding a home in Dover, but Seth's moving to Texas (at least for a bit--long term yet to be decided), Bethany's not around, and Tori's planning to spend time in California--so most of them aren't Home in Dover.… (meer)