Publisher’s Description:
“Seventeen years after being orphaned, Apryl Burns and her twin sister Courtney have their own expectations for life. While Courtney continues to shine at everything, Apryl holds fast to the mantra that as long as her potato chip stash remains intact, then she’ll be fine.
But when their beloved grandmother ends up injured and unable to manage her struggling antique store, Courtney makes it their mission to revamp the business and save what’s left of their family’s legacy. Despite rampant doubts in her abilities, Apryl finds herself trapped under the weight of family loyalty as they transition to a wedding venue decorating service. Soon shes forced to ask (translation: blackmail) their grandmother’s renter/handyman, Chance McFarland, for help, an arrangement that is made even worse by the fact that Chance is her former (ahem, and current) crush.”
My Review:
As I begin this review, I want you to understand that I loved this story. Apryl, Courtney, Izzy, Gram, and Chance are wonderful, quirky characters that make this story have its zing. The storyline is fun, and all the way along I was pulling for both Courtney and Apryl to find their happily-ever-after. There’s some very humorous scenes that made me laugh out loud. This author knows how to write some very funny, sharp dialogue and I throughly enjoyed that.
Even with the humor, there’s a serious theme throughout this story. Will we accept God’s unconditional love for us? Will we look at ourselves through His eyes and accept the fact that because of Him, we can live our lives in victory? These characters each struggle with these two questions in their own ways. The ending chapters of this book brought tears to my eyes, especially in the case of Apryl.
There’s two things that can be distracting while reading this book. First, there’s quite a few references to fairly current books and movies that may or may not mean something to the reader. If you get them, they’re funny, but there were just a couple for which I had no context. The second thing is the frequent shift in the points of view from the characters. Sometimes the character’s viewpoint is in first person, sometimes it’s not. Although this works in this story, my personal preference is for it to be one or the other and not mixed.
If you like Christian contemporary romance, you’ll enjoy this book. It reminded me of Erynn Mangum’s Lauren Holbrook series.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.