Review: Secretly Smitten by Various

Last year's Smitten collection from bestselling Christian authors Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Diann Hunt and Denise Hunter was about finding love in the small town of Smitten, the self-proclaimed romance capital of America, Vermont. Secretly Smitten is set in the same town, but with a different set of characters, so there is no need to have read Smitten first.

These four novellas centre around the Wood sisters, Tess, Zoe, and Clare, and their mother, Anna. In the background, the family are unravelling the mystery of a set of Korean War dog tags found in their attic, and trying to get RailAmerica to stop in Smitten and help boost their fledgling tourism industry.

The four stories in Secretly Smitten are:

Love Between the Lines by Colleen Coble

The story of bookshop owner Tess Wood, and Ryan, the handsome widower whose house might hold the answer to the mystery of the dog tags;

Make Me a Match by Kristen Billerbeck

Zoe running into trouble with William, the new city manager, with her new matchmaking business;

Knit One, Love Two by Diann Hunt

Anna tries to expand her business with a little help from Michael; and

Love Blooms by Denise Hunter 

Clare steps out of her comfort zone and hires Ethan, a drifter, to work in the garden centre she manages.

I thought the first and last novellas were excellent, but didn’t like the middle two as much. I found it difficult to relate to the characters, because I didn’t see the connection between Zoe and William, and Anna’s character was inconsistent with her portrayal in the earlier stories. Enjoyable but not outstanding.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze® for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about the authors at Girls Write Out, the website they share with half of ‘Hannah Alexander’.