Well, not at all the fun time I was expecting. Although a good premise, a nice cover and a good enough first couple of pages, it lacks depth. I was not expecting the book to be profound, but at least something a bit more mature in style and dialogue. The female lead is cute, the male lead is ok, but the play in coincidences is too much and too unrealistic, even for a work of fiction. The main characters fall flat, and most of the secondary characters are too good to be true.But aside from the implausibilities found in the story, it is a sweet and cute romantic story with a few secrets driving the plot and maintaining our interest until the end. I had a couple of problems with this book. First, while the story was sweet I feel it fell flat in the execution. The writing was very dry at points and some of the metaphors that were used made no sense to me. One that stuck out was when it said the seventy-plus degree weather slapped Claire in the face. Pretty much everyone I know would call that kind of weather beautiful, nice or pleasant. Something that's beautiful, nice or pleasant isn't going to slap you in the face. My other problem with this book is the same problem I have with a lot of Christian fiction. It does not feel relevant. While I am all for a sweet, light-hearted love story to me there were two stories in this book I would have enjoyed more to see told. The story of Claire's mother Emily -- how her faith grew and stayed strong even when she was a single mother struggling paycheck to paycheck and fighting a cancer that refused to loosen its grip -- and Haley -- living with an alcoholic, abusive man and struggling over the decision to stay or go and what is best for her and her child. These are stories that are relevant and gritty and real to a hurting world. These are stories that can give hope to Christian women who are in similar situations. Too often Christian fiction takes the easy way and says "Believe in God and all your problems will disappear." However this is not real. This is not even what God says. You know the song that says sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes He calms the man. There are strong Christians who fight against cancer and lose the battle here on earth; they don't receive the healing they believe in until they are in God's arms in heaven. There are Christian women with strong faith who are married to men who are abusive. Sometimes these are even men who go to church every Sunday, profess a faith in God and then go home to abuse their wives in every way imaginable -- emotionally, financially, physically and sexually. These are women who often feel so alone because to the outside world their husbands look like saints so these women can come to believe they do deserve their treatment or they reach out for help only to have no one believe them. These are the harder stories to tell but these are the stories Christian writers need to tell to meet people struggling with these problems where they are. That's what Jesus did and continues to do today -- meet people where they are; offer them hope for their very real hurts, show them that even if the storm isn't calmed He will calm them and give them the strength they need.
What do You think about Delivered With Love (2011)?
It was a sweet Christian story with a happy ending. A fairly quick read.
—deatheater
