How Sweet It Is was a sweet and likeable dual-timeline story about trusting and hoping in God no matter our circumstances in life.
The present timeline followed Jed Henning, who’s forced to reconcile with his brother or his dad, who owns the controlling share of his company, will shut it down. While trying to find his brother in Boise, he rents an apartment from Holly, a woman struggling with the loss of her dreams and trusting others as well as herself. As they begin to spend time together and confide in each other, they begin to wonder if pursuing a relationship is worth the risk. In the historic timeline, Andrew Henning, Jed's great-grandfather, faces major life changes in his old age and must decide to trust God in his circumstances.
Admittedly, I didn’t connect to this story as much as I would like and I could easily put it down - in no hurry to finish. However, it was still an enjoyable read. I really liked the characters and thought they were relatable and easy to empathize with. I also loved the wisdom and spiritual truth smoothly interwoven throughout the story; it was definitely my favorite part.
Although How Sweet It Is can be read as a standalone, I think it reads better as part of a series, in order. This novel is the first book I've read in this series and, even though this story is complete and has no loose ends, I had a feeling a lot of plot points in Andrew Henning's life from the previous books were revealed in this story.
Also, the connection between the two timelines seemed very thin to me at times; despite the fact that Jed is gifted Andrew Henning’s bible and the overall theme of the book can apply to both timelines, the stories often felt disjointed to me.
Lastly, the ending kind of threw me a bit. Although the happy ending for the characters wasn't entirely surprising, it felt rushed and I wished there was more story to provide a smoother transition into the conclusion.
All in all, this book was a pleasant, albeit slow, read for me.
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.