5.0 out of 5 stars
Holly Jacobs has written yet another wonderful story, December 10, 2009
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques
Families don't always "match on the outside," but they "matched on the inside, and that's all that counts. And that's what family means to me."
Eli Cartright is a teacher who specializes in working with teenage parents, helping them to find alternatives so they can raise their children and finish school. She is more than a teacher however, she is a mentor to many of these students coming through her classroom, providing the support they aren't receiving from their own parents. Eli has the perfect life with a fulfilling career and a good boyfriend. She has the rest of her life all planned out... until a few Unexpected Gifts come her way.
In her 40s, Eli is about to become a mother for the first time, quite unplanned. Her boyfriend has no room in his life for a baby so he leaves her to deal with raising a child on her own. Fortunately for her, she has wonderful parents and friends, as well as a business associate, Zac Keller, who has a soft spot for Eli, and the kids in her program. He grew up in a family with stronger ties than blood so he knows that often the Unexpected Gifts, are the most wonderful blessings of all... if only he can convince Eli he is here to stay.
Holly Jacobs has written yet another wonderful story in Unexpected Gifts. After so many books where Holly Jacobs has endeavored to make us laugh, it is a change in direction for her to now want to make us cry in an oh-so-good way, as she's had a few books now more serious in tone, but this is a change that works incredibly well for her.
Family is often a theme explored, with various analogies, in Holly's books and this is one of my favorites yet for how she defines a family. It doesn't matter if a family matches on the outside, only that they match on the inside, as Zac's sister Cessy explains in an essay she writes. I shed many tears in that particular scene. There is one other scene as well, later in the book that was made me cry over the significance and poignancy of the moment. We know in that scene, just how deeply Zac cares for Eli and her unborn baby.
I enjoyed the irony we experience alongside of Eli, who has helped teens deal with unplanned for pregnancies, only to find herself in the same situation. Eli has a boyfriend who can't make up his mind if he wants to be there for her and the baby or not, and has to prepare to be a single mother at a time in her life she never expected this to happen. When Zac steps in to help Eli, she doubts their relationship initially but Zac is crazy about Eli and her baby, and is determined to prove to her he is here to stay. Their relationship is at times tender, humorous, or difficult, and we never doubt for a moment these two are perfect for one another, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses.
I loved my visit with Eli and Zac, and all of the Keller clan in Unexpected Gifts. I hope we can look forward to more stories about this charming family.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, November 2009. All rights reserved.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
super relationship drama, November 11, 2009
For fifteen years in George County, Pennsylvania family and consumer science (formerly home economics) teacher Elinore "Eli" Cartwright sponsored the teen parenting program; however, ironically at forty-four she finds herself frightened, pregnant and single. Her boyfriend Arthur makes it very clear, he enjoys their DINK status especially no kids.
Thus Eli has decisions to make, which she finds rather easy as she wants a child and this may be her last chance considering her age and male prospects. Store owner Zac Keller has been in love with Eli for seemingly forever, but hid his feelings from her as she had that college professor boyfriend. He makes his feelings obvious to her that he wants her and her unborn child.
This is a super relationship drama that makes a strong case that DNA does not make a family, nurturing and loving one another in spite of blood makes a family. Eli and Zac are strong lead characters while the support especially his adopted parents and sister and Arthur enhance the underlying premise as life happens in mysterious ways. Readers will enjoy Holly Jacobs' wonderful Pennsylvania contemporary romance.
Harriet Klausner
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