Customer Reviews

Happily Ever After (Deep Haven Series #1)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I just finished this book, and I have to say it is one of the best love stories I've read in some time. I love reading Christian romance stories, so when I found this new series by Susan May Warren, I was thrilled. The book is about Mona, a woman who has a dream of opening a bookstore/coffeeshop in an old Victorian house that is in need of many repairs. Enter Joe, a rugged, handsome, and charming handyman who can make Mona's dream a reality. The trouble is, Joe has secrets, secrets he has worked hard to keep Mona from finding out. Mona has a few secrets of her own, and as the story goes along both Mona and Joe struggle with those secrets, and the distance it puts between them. You'll cry with Joe as he learns about forgiveness, you'll cry with Mona has she's put through one trial after another, and finally, you'll laugh and rejoice with both as they finally find themselves in each other's arms!

At my core, I'm a romance novel fanatic. But, I'd never read a romance book with a heavily Christian take. It was interesting to note that stuff that crosses my mind was put in print. I honestly didn't even realize that there was this type of publishing in the main stream.

As for the story - it's totally cookie cutter. You can call this tale in the prologue/first chapter. I was put off by how weepy the female protagonist was from the mid point on to the end.

Overall, it was still worth my time.

This book is about a young woman, Mona, who tries to pursue a dream of building her own bookstore. Joe comes into the
picture as her handyman, to help get the store up and running.

There seems to be a little bit of everything in this book. We find that Joe has a brother with Down's syndrome. We seem him
deal with that, and with the fact that his father left him. We also find a little bit of mystery in this book, like who kept
trying to sabotage Mona's bookstore, and who was really Reese Clark.

The book was very well written and easy to read. The book didn't drag on and on about things. I enjoyed the discussions
between Joe and Ruth, who was the director of the group home where Gabe was staying. And the forgiveness theme, between Joe
and his father, was done well.

I guess I would have liked to see more of Mona's past expanded upon. The book mentioned that her mother moved to Arizona
after Mona's father's death. What was the relationship between Mona and her mother? I think that the parts about Mona's
guilt over her father's death could have been expanded upon a little more.

I really enjoyed this book. It was very easy to read.

This tale of a wounded author who wanders the globe to gather material for his books and keep from facing his family and it's broken past is a tender, heartwarming read. Though he sets out to be a handyman for a desperate young entreprenuer, Joe Michaels gets more than he bargained for from determined Mona and her dream of the Footstep of Heaven Bookstore and Coffeshop. Dealing with her own secrets and determined to succeed with her business, Mona's fierce independence and great need suck Joe right in to what quickly turns into a mystery with him as the first suspect. Watching Mona and Joe drop the walls of their hearts and learn to trust and forgive--and fall in love--is as scrumptious as one of Mona's strawberry muffins. Treat yourself.

Way to many bible quotes and wishy washy main characters. She loves him she hates him she trusts him she doesn't all based on who shes talking to at the moment. He's a professional highly successful person with the confidence on a gnat and the presence of a pup that needs to be hand fed to get it to eat. I felt like I was sitting in the longest church service I'd been to with the pastor repeating his speach over and over.

I had quickly "purchased" this book for free on my kindle. I picked it solely on the high rating it received. But, after reading it I found myself trying to skip many pages, which is difficult to do fast in a controlled way on the kindle. The thing I disliked most about this book was the annoying main character. She started off by appearing to be a strong, determined, independent woman, but reading on I found myself disliking her. She constantly changed her mind, one second falling for the handyman she hired at minimum wage and the next second accusing him of being a criminal whose purpose in life was to ruin her budding business. She made a big fuss in refusing the handyman's help in carrying heavy items to establish her independence but had no problem with him working dawn to midnight on fixing her coffeehouse. She was upset with herself because her roommate was smart enough to be interested in the successsful, stable man whereas she she couldn't stop thinking about the drifter handyman. She rarely thanked the handyman but acted as though she did him a favor by allowing him to help her...so according to this book, the way to establish you are an independent woman is to verbally tear down the man you are interested in until he figures out you secretly love him. What a heroine!

The other issue I had with this book was the big fuss made over the handyman's "secret" life...it doesn't too long to figure it out, but it was portrayed as though he had some sort of criminal secret or terrible past that haunted him and turned him into a recluse. Which I think seriously overstated the issue.

The best part about this book was the cover picture of the cup of coffee on top of a stack books. I really do love the picture on the cover! Too bad the kindle only displays black and white. Back to the book, there were many parts of the book I skipped reading because it was just not interesting enough. But, I guess I got what I paid for!

Going purely with first impressions, I absolutely loved the cover, front and back. The characters are people I would really like, in real life. I love the back and forth points of view between Joe and Mona. It wasn't so quick to give the reader whiplash, but, at the same time, she didn't just toss in Joe's POV occasionally for filler on the Mona-centric story. Fiction-wise, it developed the characters so that they seemed rounded and real; their separate plotlines didn't "move forward" the main plot as much as they did deepen my understanding of the characters as people. It was like real life; some things, like Gabe, aren't resolved, they're accepted as they are; some things, like Mona's rocky, or at least distant, relationship with her mom are mentioned, but kinda left for later. I had the feeling that I was just seeing a part of these people's lives instead of something wrapped in a tidy bundle. Like they're still living and growing and changing even when the book's over.

As for the mystery, it reminded me of the movie Frequency. The typical whodunit is resolved 1/3 of the way in the book, but the real story with the "villain," Mona, and Joe came after. Instead of making the standard romance/quasi-mystery, she played with audience expectations because the sabotage mystery wasn't the point of the story. Trust was: Mona trusting Joe and vice versa, everybody trusting God. And forgiveness. It was delicately people focused instead of heavy-handed plot focused.

The ONLY reason I rated this with 4 stars instead of 5 is because I am saving it up for Warren's future work. Happily Ever After trumps "Measure of a Man," which was already intruguing, enjoyable, romantic, and sweet. Whatever comes next is bound to be even better.

This story hits every angle of what is real and what needs to feed the heart. A very warm touching, tear jerking story of faith. It has everything your heart desires, and goes beyond. Inspirational.Yes. Heartlifting. Oh Yes. A true gift. Double Yes.

As a novelist myself, this is one of the best book, I have read. I strongly recomended.
"Enespsigo"

The author hooked me with the story line and drew me in, but somewhere along the line the story turned preachy and way to over the top. It's like she tried to draw a lesson from everything instead of focusing on the main story line. When she started quoting long passages of scripture page after page after page, I just lost interest in the story. In the future if you want to hold my interest, give me the story and show me through the character's actions about their chosen path and how God helps them to arrive at their answers. Don't beat me over the head with it. The old adage, show don't tell works here.

I have to say at first yes I like the book but when it started turning into pages of bible verses I lost interest and actually got very annoyed after a while. I don't mind some here and there but this was a bit to much for me. The only reason I finished reading the book I wanted to see how it ended.