Since I started blogging I have been given the chance to review many books. I have found some new authors who I have fallen in love with their work. So when given the opportunity to purchase a book, or add books to my Christmas wish list I go to these authors first. Many of whom work with Litfuse Publicity that I work with regularly.One such author is Susan May Warren, I have gotten to check out a few of her books, and a couple from the Deep Haven Series. You can check out my reviews for those as: Shadow of Your Smile, and You Don't Know Me.After reading several of her books, I have added her to my favourite authors list, and when I received a gift card for amazon.com I knew I wanted to get another of her Deep Haven Series. I chose Happily Ever After.Happily Ever After is the first in the series that includes:You Don't Know MeThe Shadow of Your SmileMy Foolish HeartHappily Ever AfterThe Perfect Matchand Tying the KnotEach book that I had read in the series so far has been thoroughly enjoyable, so I was ready to start at the beginning and work my way through the series.Here is the jist of what the book is about: God has answered Mona Reynolds's prayers and given her the opportunity of a lifetime: she is about to open her own bookstore-coffee shop, the Footstep of Heaven. Now Mona has no time for love and no hope that a man can ever be the hero of her dreams. But when she hires mysterious drifter Joe Michaels to be her handyman, she discovers that it isn't only in fairy tales that people live "happily ever after."When we first meet Mona we realize that she is a bit of a mess. She is feisty, independent, but doesn't have everything totally figured out.When she hires Joe Michaels we realize that things aren't going to be all that easy for Mona to trust and depend on him. She isn't the asking for help type. No matter what Joe does it seems like nothing ever goes smoothly between them.Mona is very focused on her personal goal, and doesn't feel like she can share that with anyone. The thing is, anyone who has ever been in love, or married realizes that loving someone else means sharing their goal, and working together to get things accomplished. We can't do everything on our own and we need help. Your perfect match will see what things are extremely important to you, and it will be important to them.Does Mona ever figure it out? Well you have to read and find out!I found this book, very fun and engaging. I found it to be a quick read, which was good because I had a hard time putting it down.If you have read it before I would love to hear what you thought!You can check out more of my reviews at: http://www.theknitwitbyshair.com
Sweet and clean Christian romance set on the north shores of Lake Superior. Mona has longed to open a book store in the tourist town of Deep Haven. With her best friend she purchases a rundown Victorian home in hopes of remodeling it in time for tourist season. It doesn't take long for Mona and her friend to realize that they are going to need more help to fix the place up. Joe Michaels answers the ad for a handyman. Right off the bat there is chemistry between Mona and Joe. But each holds secrets that they are not willing to give up, not even for what they feel for each other. After someone tries to sabotage Mona's book store, she loses faith in her dreams of opening it. Joe tells her not to give up, God never gives up on us or our dreams, she must have faith in God because it's His plan for her. As the feeling continue to grow stronger between Mona and Joe, their past tears them apart and both are left with broken hearts. Slowly the truths come around and Joe shows back up in Mona's life, but not quite as the same person as she thought he was!
What do You think about Happily Ever After (2007)?
I wanted to love this book, but I think chicklit is just not my favorite genre, and I'm not going to love it unless there is a mystery to be solved. :-)This is a christian romance. For me the jump from the first chapter to the second was a little confusing, but another chapter or two in the story was clear. There are a lot of scriptures in here, and the characters pray often. I liked that. In theory at least. In application.. it seemed a little drawn out. I wished they had gotten to the conclusion of the book (which you knew was coming...) much sooner. I found myself very impatient with the characters, but that may have been the point? I know this is the first book in the series, it would be interesting to see how the characters develop. Is this series similar to the Blossom street series by Debbie Macomber? It could be, but I don't know beyond this book. This book concentrated on one story line, but did leave the door open to branch out on a few of the other characters... so maybe it could be.
—Heather Truckenmiller
This is a cute little romance but nothing special--it defines the word "hackneyed." It is merely a patch-work quilt of cliches from generic romance novels and Hallmark TV movies with an absence of creativity or any original thought. On the plus side, it was indeed a pleasant fast read, and the hero, the dog, and many of the secondary characters were well-developed and likable. On the negative side was the aforementioned unoriginal generic-romance plot and the heroine, who is a grating, self-absorbed narcissist who is so witchy that right after the hero risks his life to save her from drowning, she reams him out for leaving her hose running (no kidding)--and somehow we are supposed to see her as cute, funny, and lovable--riiight. In real life the hero could have done so much better, you can't help hoping that he wises up, dumps the narcissistic witch and moves on with someone half-way decent. You are safe choosing this book if you just want to have a few hours to kill or equally safe skipping this one and knowing you haven't really missed anything because you have already read it, hundreds of times before.
—LadyCalico
I really don't know how this book ended up on my Kindle. Maybe I was trying to buy something else? Maybe it was free and I confused the book descriptions? Both those options seem likely, but I don't really know. I obviously didn't read the description, because 50 pages into this book, it's obvious this was not a fluffy supernatural romance book but, a Christian romance novel. As I am not a Christian, but an atheist agnostic, this was really not my thing. The next question you should be asking, is why the hell did I even finish reading it? Well, I've been reading nothing but dense books on economics for school and I needed a palate cleanser. So I read 50 pages and just kept going. And really, at least it made me laugh. I guess I should give it 2 stars and say, "it's ok" but it wasn't. It was terrible. But it served its purpose, it distracted me and entertained me for a few hours.
—Joanna
