Book Review: Sweetbriar Cottage by Denise Hunter

Discovering Unconditional Love

Noah Mitchell is less than impressed when he finds his ex-wife is actually still his wife—she forgot to file their divorce papers, so the divorce was never final. Now he has to get those papers filed to get the IRS off his back. But getting them filed means visiting Josephine Dupree Mitchell again—not something he’s looking forward to.

Josie knows how much Nate doesn’t want to spend time with her. And why would he, after what she did? So she decides to be helpful and save Nate a trip into town by driving out to his ranch to deliver the signed papers. She can get his signature, file the papers with the judge, and the divorce will be done. At last.

Only things never work out as planned, because a snowstorm hits as Josie arrives at the ranch, and she’s trapped there with Nate, the ex-husband she still has feelings for. Then things get worse …

Sweetbriar Cottage is a sweet (!) yet powerful exploration of the nature of unconditional love. It starts in the present, but has flashbacks to three and a half years ago, when Nate and Josie first met, and to Josie’s childhood—the childhood she never discussed with Nate. The flashbacks gradually reveal what she did—but they also show why she did it.

It was always obvious Nate was the one who had instigated the divorce, and this got me wondering why. How can you meet, marry, and divorce in just three years? (This seems unbelievably fast, partly because I live in New Zealand where it takes at least two years to get a divorce.) What had she done that he couldn’t forgive? And why did he marry a non-Christian in the first place?

It was also obvious that Josie was one emotionally messed up woman, and that whatever she’d done was the result of her messed up teenage years (triggers!) and her subsequent belief that there is no such thing as unconditional love. Spoiler: there is. But that’s something they both need to learn.

I’d been a little apprehensive about reading Sweetwater Cottage, but it captured me from the beginning and never let up. A great second chance romance with some deep Christian themes.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Denise Hunter at her website.

Review: Just a Kiss by Denise Hunter

Awkward.

This is the third and final novel in the Summer Harbor trilogy, and features one of my favourite romance tropes: friends to lovers (although, as is proper for Christian romance, it’s actually friends to more-than-friends). It’s the story of Riley, who has recently returned from service in the Middle East, service which has left him with issues.

But there were also some more awkward parts, like the implication that oysters weren’t shellfish (when the speaker is a lobsterman and therefore should know better, and he’s talking to someone who is allergic to shellfish). Or the suggestion that amputees can do anything these days—look at "that Olympic runner". As I write this (June 2016), the Olympic runner in question is awaiting sentencing on a murder charge after shooting his girlfriend four times, thinking she was an intruder.

I doubt this is the kind of “anything” the author was referring to—this is meant to be a romance novel, not a tragedy. As an aside, my husband often feels I’m too nit-picky in my criticisms of novels, but even he agreed this reference was in poor taste—and something that even the most basic of internet searches should have picked up on. A reference to the Paralympics or Invictus Games would have been more timely and appropriate. Boom.



But what of the novel? Well, it was good but the ending was more cliché that I’d have liked, the Christian content was sporadic (I get that Riley may well have been having a crisis of faith due to his injury, but he actually made no reference to having any faith at all, ever). There were a couple of references to him having PTSD which didn’t entirely fit but came across as a half-fledged idea, never fully executed. I liked seeing more of the relationship between Miss Trudy and Sheriff Colton, and that would have been a highlight if the author hadn’t effectively given away the ending in her introductory Author Note.

After the first two books in the series, I was genuinely expecting Just a Kiss to be a five-star read for me. But as you will have seen, there were too many not-quite-right aspects for my taste. It was good, but not great and not as good as I hoped it would be. Riley’s injury gave Hunter a great opportunity to delve into the physical and mental health issues facing returned servicemen and women, and it didn’t deliver. A solid read, but not something I'll re-read.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

I'm Reviewing at Australasian Christian Writers: The Goodbye Bride by Denise Hunter

http://australasianchristianwriters.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/review-goodbye-bride-by-denise-hunter.html