Fetching Sweetness

What do you get when you combine a wanna-be literary agent, a runaway dog, and a self-proclaimed curmudgeon? Fetching Sweetness fits this bill and then some. Dana Mentink has told this tale in the third person and centered the story around Stephanie Pink, a woman who wants to be a literary agent, and Rhett Hastings, a former CEO with a ruthless business reputation. Playing a major part in the novel is a possible Great Pyrenese dog with a penchant for finding wounded animals and bringing them home, and for chewing up spatulas.

What will you get out of this book if you read it? A whole lot of entertainment with a side order of understanding for what God wants to do with your life and where your dreams actually come from.

Rhett feels like he irrevocably ruined his sister's life when he had her boyfriend deported for working when his Visa didn't allow it. He now wants to make amends and has taken steps in that direction. At the opening of the book, he is moving a trailer from California to Washington for his sister to live in at their grandparents orchard. The Dappled Apple Orchard was a place of peace when they were growing up and he wants to give it to his sister to be able to live and do whatever kind of work she wants.

Stephanie has come from New York to get the new manuscript by Agnes Wharton. In the midst of making the exchange, Agnes' dog gets out and runs off. While Stephanie looks for the dog (which is the condition for which Stephanie will get the manuscript), she runs into Rhett. After they think they find the dog, Rhett allows Stephanie to take a shower in his trailer and to change into clothes that are a bit more comfortable. This is where the fun and the comedy of errors begin.

As they travel together, they discuss life goals, ideas about God, and how life has dealt with them so far. Stephanie is rather bitter toward God because her brother died when he was sixteen. Her life goal is to be a literary agent and she will allow nothing to interfere. Rhett has left a Fortune 500 company to set up the orchard and make amends to his sister. When everything goes wrong (at least in Rhett's eyes), he wonders whether God was in his dreams or if he was not hearing God at all.

The conflict Stephanie and Rhett each encounter will make readers think hard about their own dreams and whether they are actually listening to God at all.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a chewed up spatula for your pancakes.

My thanks to Harvest House for allowing me to read and review this book.