phyllish
Written on Jul 27, 2020
I'm a sucker for a second chances type story, especially one that has a child in it. And this is Meghann Whistler's debut novel so I knew I had to read it!
First of all I want to mention that I had forgotten Falling for the Innkeeper is a debut novel while I was reading. And it wasn't until I started preparing this post I remembered this.
I completely empathized with Laura and her fear of Jonathan, who reminded her of her ex-husband, at least by his profession and appearance. Yet Jonathan was surprising and didn't fit the category Laura had placed him in. At all. Which he set out to prove in some very fun ways.
From his kind and even playful interactions with Laura's adorable daughter, Emma, to his surprising skills at fixing things and capturing rats (eeeewwwww!), Jonathan slowly but surely began to work his way into Laura's heart.
Emma was absolutely adorable!! She was everything a four-year-old girl should be. Sparkly, quirky, unafraid to speak her mind. She was generous with her hugs and her heart and assumed everyone was her friend and worthy of kindness. Oh, I wish I had just a fraction of her energy!!
Laura struggled with seeing herself as worthy of being loved. Jonathan struggled with the sense that he could earn what he wanted. As Laura held on to her faith and served the Lord, Jonathan had walked away from the faith he learned as a child. His return to faith was insinuated - which is typical for this publisher.
While it would have been easy for the author to fall into the trap of giving easy answers and wiping away all the problems perfectly as they rode off into the sunset at the end, she didn't. The resolution required compromise and while the conclusion was satisfactory, it did not end with everything perfect - making it more realistic and in my opinion, more enjoyable.
This sweet romance was just the right length and moved at just the right pace. Falling for the Innkeeper showed the story well without information dumps or too much "telling" for the most part, however, the epilogue did try to sew up the details in a small amount of book's real estate and felt a little much like an info dump at the start.
If you enjoy sweet romance, be sure to read Falling for the Innkeeper.
Read my full review at Among the Reads
I was given a copy of this book. I was not required to give a favorable review nor was any money received for this review. All comments and opinions are my own.