Customer Reviews

The Courage to Dream (Love Inspired #205)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been reading the Love Inspired series for a short time now and they've become my favorite books to read. Not all of them are great, but a lot of them are and this one turned out to be a gem.

Rachel Peters is a famous chef who's always on the move and is called to the small town of Magnolia Blossom after her aunt's death. Its up to Rachel now to take care of her siblings, brother Shaun and her sister Amy. But its not as easy as Rachel thought it would be, her siblings resent her, especially Amy, who won't listen to anything Rachel says. On top of all that, she must face her high school sweetheart Michael Hunter who's also a single parent. Michael offers to help Rachel with Shaun and Amy, and in the process the two begin to fall in love.

It's predictable but I loved it.

I forced my way through this book hoping and praying that in the end I'd understand, but I didn't.

I thought this story would show Michael being a father figure two Rachel's two kids, but I didn't ever really see it...He seemed to be more of a "friend," even to his own son than anything else...His involvement seemed very limited.

Rachel Peters was a selfish and self-righterous person in my opinion. It's what SHE wanted that mattered. I thought that Amy was the most mature one. She had a boyfriend who seemed to really care for her and even prayed for her and told her to do the right thing. Rachel had absolutely NO RIGHT trying to get Amy or Shaun to go back to New York with her. I think Rachel should have left those kids with Michael and taken off for parts unknown!

She selfishly left Michael ten years before and had ABSOLUTELY no right to him! There is NO WAY a decent man would pine away for a woman like that and TAKE HER BACK after what she did!

And after she announced she had been approved for the loan and went to talk to Shaun...Ewwww, I wanted to smack her silly! She practically bribed her brother to get him to agree to go to New York with her. This woman made me sick to my stomach.

So I like Michael. I mean, he was okay, but he didn't have much of a backbone. I think he deserved much better than Rachel.

Even the epilogue - when I read that she was having Michael's baby, I just felt sorry for the kid. I hope any baby born to Rachel is willing to do things her way or no way at all, because that's the way it's going to be...

I'm sorry. I know some don't see it that way, but that's the way I saw this book. I gave it two stars simply because I managed to get through it. I liked Micahel and thought his and his ex-wife's story was great...

I LOVED this book! The characters fought and argued at the beginning, but each had a reason to do so. Rachel had a life of abandonment by her parents and wanted to do what she thought she needed to when her beloved relative who raised her died, leaving her brother and sister in her care. She also had to face Michael, an old boyfriend she had left years ago.

Both Michael and Rachel have to figure out how to let go of the past and forgive. They also have to make sacrifices to have the life that God has planned for them.

This book was refreshing and great. A must read!

One of the reasons I gravitate towards the Love-Inspired series is that they feature highly-principled characters who interact with each other in a polite and reasonable manner, settling their conflicts with a mature mindset and respectful tolerance. This is a refreshing change from the typical romance novel where the characters react in negative ways towards each other, using destructive bickering instead of constructive dialogue, supposedly representing tension or attraction.

I was very disappointed to discover that this book fits the latter category. Both Michael and Rachel were filled with a tremendous amount of anger, bitterness and resentment. This came out in the hostile and abrasive, highly-critical, sarcastic way they interacted with each other. They neither spoke like Christians nor acted that way. Rachel was so icy and aloof, and came across as quite selfish, that it was nearly impossible to warm up to her. Michael was a bit more likeable because of his kind and thoughtful interactions with the children, yet he was so unforgiving, and spoke so cruelly to Rachel, which was in direct opposition to the prayers he spoke and the religious beliefs he professed.

Rachel Peters was an up-and-coming chef who was about to open her own restaurant in New York City when she heard of her Aunt Flora's death. She hurries back to her hometown of Magnolia Blossom to take care of her younger sister and brother, planning to move her siblings to New York with her once she gets the okay from her parents, who were busy researching things in the jungle and never had time for their three children. Her plans quickly fall to pieces, though, when she discovers that her younger sister absolutely refuses to leave Magnolia Blossom, and her younger brother barely knows Rachel. Worse yet, Rachel ran into her high school sweetheart, Michael Hunter, and the confusing feelings that she still feels for him don't help the situation, either.

Michael Hunter had moved on with his life. He had married, had a son, and divorced since he saw Rachel last, but that didn't mean that he had forgotten about her. He was bitter towards her, though, because she had left Magnolia Blossom and him far behind her ten years ago. He didn't want to be around her any more than he had to, but his son was friends with her younger brother, and Rachel desperately needed his help to win her siblings' loyalty. As he spent time with Rachel, though, he couldn't help but feel the love he once had for her. Can that love grow again?

This book was pretty good, with fairly realistic characters and situations. I could completely understand why Rachel had fled Magnolia Blossom ten years ago, but what I couldn't understand is why Michael was so mean to her. He was almost downright cruel to her a few times, and he didn't lessen up even though she was grieving her aunt's death and was stressed about her siblings, although at other times he was disarmingly nice to her. I know that she had hurt him when she left, but there's really no excuse for that kind of behavior. I felt really sorry for Rachel because not only was Michael treating her shabbily, but so was her sister Amy. Other than that, I enjoyed the book, especially the character of Rachel. I really identified with her, and the author did a great job of explaining her reasoning for wanting to roam the world instead of staying in Magnolia Blossom. I would love to read more from this author.