Reviewer: Rowena My Favorite Mistake by Beth Kendrick
Publication Date: August 3rd 2004
Pages: 304
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FIRST LOVE ISN'T FOREVER...
Exhibit A: Faith's little sister, Skye, who muddled through her first divorce at the tender age of twenty-one. Faith has always provided damage control when Skye's love life gets too reminiscent of a daytime drama. But now that Faith has finally found the job, if not the man, of her dreams -- as a culinary writer, currently living la dolce vita in Italy -- she can't just jet back to small-town Minnesota to help her suddenly pregnant little sister heal her broken heart and anemic bank account.
BUT NEVER SAY NEVER!
Faith has been putting off this homecoming for years, ever since her dad left her family in the lurch, her mother left her in charge of Skye, and a sub-zero case of cold feet led her to call off the engagement to her high school sweetheart, Flynn. But a return to the amber fields of grain might just be what Faith needs to gain some perspective on her past -- and figure out her future. It's been way too long since her last love affair...memories of Flynn still get in the way of every man she meets. But if she and Flynn are really meant to be, why does the path to happily-ever-after have so many potholes?
I finished this book late last night and was glad that I finished the book. You see, I started this book months ago and kept putting it down because it just wasn’t catching my attention but once I got past those torturous first three chapters (HA!) the book was easy to read and flowed really well afterward.
You may be wondering why I gave this book a C+ if it flowed really well and the answer to that is even though this was an easy read for me, the book was sort of unbelievable. I mean, you’ve got Faith Geary and Patrick Flynn, elementary sweethearts, middle school sweethearts, high school hearts (they’ve been best friends all their lives) and the night that they finally land the deal and lose their virginity to each other, Flynn pledges his undying love to her and wants to immediately make her his wife and she panics and flees…..for 10 YEARS!
She comes back after being gone for 10 years and finds out that the bar she’s a co owner is also co owned by…noneother than Flynn. So she’s forced to save the family bar with Flynn under foot and after a tumultuous reunion with a pissed off Flynn telling Faith to take the hell off and get out, Faith and Flynn get closer and closer after what seems like days and you can tell that they’re about to fall back in love again after Flynn has been pissed to high heaven for the last 10 frickin years! And then he hears a voicemail from her editor about her coming back to California and he freaks the hell out and leaves her again…and they meet up again at their place when they were little, the last place she saw him the first time she ran and things are neatly lined up and they forgive each other, they learn to trust each other underneath the Midwestern sky and next to the river from their childhood.
It was all too neat and too tidy but the storyline, is a storyline that I enjoy, the first loves, the best friends and the one that got away storyline is my absolute favorite and I would have loved this story if it took place over a longer period of time, if it had taken more than a few weeks for them to fall back in love with each other, I would have liked it more. And because that bothered me a bit, this book ended up being just okay to me. Don’t get me wrong, the story is easy to fall into, the book moves at a great pace, it’s just too….unbelievable.
Get it or not, the book is good, it’s just…not the best.
Hmmmmm ~ well, maybe. I just have way too many other things to read right now.
Great review, as always 🙂
That’s some butt on the cover. 2008 seems to be the start of some interesting butt covers. Hmm…
I have a problem with first love plot lines – like you said, they were sweethearts all along and then she fled. I’m okay with her fleeing and stuff but if the characters don’t get over each other in a year and start at least dating others and having a life outside of each other I get bored.
I think I prefer stories where as younguns they were friends (not sweethearts) and just kind of drifted apart, had relationships that took them other places and then they find one another again. I can handle that kind of story.
CindyS