Glynna Kaye

A friend (MH) sent me this book in a box of books. I think I have read this author before though I don't think I've read any in this subseries.

Many themes are explored in this book:
*childhood friendships evolving (sometimes into romance)
*Guilt
*God's plan for your life
*Helping others (unwed mothers being the most prominent in this case).

In some ways, it almost reads like a Hallmark Christmas movie. Jodi returns to her grandparents cabin, supposedly to get it ready to sell. She reunites with friends from childhood, one of whom she had a crush on, whom she finds is now a pastor and who asks her to help with the church's unwed mothers drive because the lady spearheading it had to leave town due to a family emergency.

Jodi's trying to sort out her life path since her job is being outsourced--though she's been asked to move overseas to train the workers there. Garrett is convinced his life path is to go on a mission to the Middle East--though many others are convinced that God wants him to stay right there as the permanent pastor.

Well, if you're familiar with Hallmark movies or Love Inspired books, I'm sure you can figure out how it concludes.… (meer)

3.5 stars: Though this got off to a slow start for me, I came to care about the characters. Joey was a nice addition to the well-worn romance plot of two people not wanting to love each other because of ascribing characteristics from past relationships onto their current love interest. I also really liked the Hunter family's closeness as well as their commitment to keeping their hideaway true to their original intent while being willing to make some changes that fit that vision--even in the fact of possibly alienating a potential revenue source.

Rio's commitment to helping domestic violence victims with an interest in prevention (trying to get those involved in dangerous dating relationships to see the truth before it goes too far) is admirable, but at times she seems very single-minded about it and doesn't want to consider that it might not be her calling from God. Or that she could have that plus other things as well.

Lorilee's willingness to give up her son confuses me. Maybe she truly does believe he will be better off with Cash. Maybe she's still just looking out for herself and her own happiness. I was sorry it took an injury to Joey to get both Lorilee and Cash to talk.… (meer)

What can I say? It's a very formulaic romance, as is the case for this genre. The story and characters took a while to grow on me. I never really got the drive to keep reading the book to find out what happens next (though I did finish the book). One of the tricks of the genre is to have both main characters feeling that they can't talk to the other one about what they feel as a way to prolong the story. That is used here. After a while, you just want to yell at the characters to talk to each other already!

Both main characters do work through past events that color their current relationship, so that is a positive.… (meer)

Olivia Diaz returns home without any notice, expecting to step into managing her family's cabin resort. She's surprised to find that her parents have gone away for a much-needed vacation and left Robert McGuire in charge--as manager! Rob's been hired to update the cabin resort and find ways to increase bookings. Up to now, most of his dealings have been with another daughter of the family. He finds a bit of resistance to some changes he's considering--at the same time, he is dealing with vandals who deface cabins on the property.

As with most of these formulaic romances, had the two lovebirds decided to communicate honestly with each other earlier, they'd have saved themselves much misunderstanding and heartache. Olivia knew Rob in college and looked up to him then as well as hoped he would notice her. Since then, Rob feels he's made some bad choices in his life and fallen from the pedestal on which she seems to have placed him--rather than tell her the truth, he tries to hide it. When Olivia later does something that she is doing to help him, he takes it that she didn't trust his word and needed to hear the truth from the other person.… (meer)