Love at Mistletoe Inn

Last things first on this review. Three stars, but now that I see that it is a novella, I guess I can squeeze it up to four stars. Love at Mistletoe Inn is not exactly what I would call a Christian novella, but through it, Cindy Kirk shows in a very real way the foibles of human beings. Hope and John eloped on their prom night ten years ago, but Hope returned John's ring after the vows were said, calling the idea a mistake. Hope lost her parents young and her Aunt Verna raised her. John was a foster child Aunt Verna also took in. The close company made a convenient atmosphere for falling in love. When John comes back to town and moves into Aunt Verna's carriage house, Hope is in a dither. That morning she found out she might still be married to him, even though the paperwork was never filed after the wedding. Hard news to digest, but she knew she had to tell him and fast. It wasn't going to be easy. Aunt Verna, in the meantime, has decided to turn her home into a wedding venue and she has just the couple to "break it in," so to speak. Naming the couple "Luke" and "Laura," she convinces Hope and John to go with her to pick out the wedding paraphrenalia--dresses, tux, flowers, cake, all the things that make a wedding beautiful.

My biggest problem with the book is that when Hope is telling John that they are, in fact, still married, he tries to comfort her by sleeping with her, and thereby complicates the matter because now the marriage has been consummated. That part really fell flat with me. The other thing that kind of turns me off this book is that I wish it were a full novel that could be more fully developed than it is. I want more to the story than what is there. But still, a good four stars.

Zondervan allowed me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.