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elenajohansen's review
1.0
Racism alert: while this probably isn't the author's fault, someone along the publishing food chain screwed up. Norah is never explicitly stated to be black, but she's obviously black-coded: "dark-skinned," "chocolatey-eyed," and with hair that depending on the hairstyle is either curly or poufy. So she's black, or since her absent father is never described, possibly biracial. Yet the woman on the cover is definitely white.
I don't read a ton of Christian romance, but romance in general is still a largely white genre, and I imagine the Christian sub-genre is even more so. If you're chicken about your audience rejecting the book because you put a black woman on the cover, then they're racist, and so are you, person who made that decision.
Moving on from that, I didn't like the book. Some romances suffer from not enough conflict keeping the leads apart; this one actually had too much. On Norah's side, you've got plenty of issues: her past drug abuse, her strained family life, the fact that she works for Sterling's family as one of her jobs, and her decision never to get involved with anyone because the men in her life have all sucked. On Sterling's side, you've got his potential snowboarding career taking him out of Gold Valley, his family's racist/classist disapproval in general, plus his brother's wife actively being racist/classist and trying to split them up by firing Norah. Oh, and throw in one scene of Sterling's cheating ex feebly trying to get back with him. So that's, what, seven stumbling blocks already? Then, for both of them, there's the non-fraternization policy at Silver Creek, where Norah got Sterling a counseling job.
Eight subplot conflicts. Eight. In a 266-page book. So none of them can be explored in any depth or with much seriousness, because there simply isn't time. The fraternization issue, after a few chapters of the two of them "sneaking" around, is resolved with a single, relatively calm discussion with the Silver Creek director, who harrumphes once and says "I guess policies can be changed."
Seriously? If that's all it took to fix the problem, then why even bother writing it in? Why make it an issue at all? Clean out the easy problems and focus on the ones that matter!
I don't read a ton of Christian romance, but romance in general is still a largely white genre, and I imagine the Christian sub-genre is even more so. If you're chicken about your audience rejecting the book because you put a black woman on the cover, then they're racist, and so are you, person who made that decision.
Moving on from that, I didn't like the book. Some romances suffer from not enough conflict keeping the leads apart; this one actually had too much. On Norah's side, you've got plenty of issues: her past drug abuse, her strained family life, the fact that she works for Sterling's family as one of her jobs, and her decision never to get involved with anyone because the men in her life have all sucked. On Sterling's side, you've got his potential snowboarding career taking him out of Gold Valley, his family's racist/classist disapproval in general, plus his brother's wife actively being racist/classist and trying to split them up by firing Norah. Oh, and throw in one scene of Sterling's cheating ex feebly trying to get back with him. So that's, what, seven stumbling blocks already? Then, for both of them, there's the non-fraternization policy at Silver Creek, where Norah got Sterling a counseling job.
Eight subplot conflicts. Eight. In a 266-page book. So none of them can be explored in any depth or with much seriousness, because there simply isn't time. The fraternization issue, after a few chapters of the two of them "sneaking" around, is resolved with a single, relatively calm discussion with the Silver Creek director, who harrumphes once and says "I guess policies can be changed."
Seriously? If that's all it took to fix the problem, then why even bother writing it in? Why make it an issue at all? Clean out the easy problems and focus on the ones that matter!
aliceshepherd's review
5.0
Summer and Ben is all that needs to be said. What a great book! Life's problems, God's solutions. This book shows what can happen when people really care about others and are willing to let God work in their lives. I look forward to reading other books by this author. Relaxing to read. It grabs you at the first page and doesn't let go until the last page. I found this book hard to put down. I wanted to read all night to finish this book but the eyelids would not let that happen. I continued the next day and was able to complete it. I love the way this author writes. No sex. No profanity. No violence.
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