I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Thank you Zondervan!
I love these books. When it comes to the "formulaic" type of books (romances, crime novels) I tend to find one author I like and read everything they write. For Kathleen Fuller I've considered what it is about her romance novels that I like more than others in the genre, and in this book I realized what it was - her characters.
I love that her Amish series tend to follow different communities and that while there is a general focus on one couple per book, the supporting cast (so to speak) is recurring and makes for wonderful sideplots and rich characterizations. I keep coming back, because I keep enjoying this community of characters.
I thought this was one of her better books and that Katharine was one of her best female leads.
I'm someone who loves the book, and even more the movie, "Sleeping with the enemy", and this was sort of a light version of that. Something about a woman getting the courage to try to leave an abusive man speaks very deeply to me.
Now, why is Katharine one of the best leads? I know that in the present girl power iteration we are all supposed to embrace and love ourselves as we are, and yay for that. But let's be honest, a lot of women do struggle with feeling 'less than', struggling with weight and complexion issues, dealing with poor self-esteem from not being 'the pretty one' who gets easy male attention. Basically, Katharine isn't the typical "oh I had no idea I was beautiful" but stunningly gorgeous lead, she comes across as a rather plain girl whose beauty is there but not obvious, and who got taken advantage of because of her poor self-esteem.
Something about her was just more relatable than with most female leads. She was genuinely vulnerable, and I was really rooting for her to feel better about herself and invested in her well-being.
I also really liked Ezra and enjoyed that he was quite forthcoming about his emotions, rather than spending the whole book trying to avoid them, and just being a good guy all around.
I wasn't as invested in the sideplot, however, I did really like that Fuller started to build it up in the previous book "Matched and Married", which made it feel very satisfying to get a conclusion. The theme of abuse runs heavy through this book, but I enjoyed that it went to the darker place.
I found Simeon quite frightening, though I do wish the conclusion to his story would have been a little bit more elaborate. (Oh, and oh that Galen moment! Gah! When you read it you'll know my frustration.)
The one thing I didn't really enjoy was Charity, I thought she was a bit over the top and needlessly mean, I really, really, hope that we get to read a redemption arc for her in an upcoming book. I hope she gets to mature and become a more positive character. Something about her being only 18 made me flashback to every embarrassing or stupid thing I said or did during my entire high school career (so much for that night's sleep, thanks brain), and I really hope that Fuller takes her flaws and allows her to grow. Perhaps even let her be a love interest in the next book? I guess time will tell.