While I can happily suspend disbelief for fantastical story elements, like elves and magic spells and talking trees and, yes, even miracles from God, I have very little tolerance for illogical or grossly improbable plot points in a story that is supposedly set in a realistic world and peopled by functioning adults. This, unfortunately, is one of those books.

More than one character is expected to take over a successful family business from their supposedly business-savvy parent, but is actively discouraged from learning basic business skills at university. A character who resists learning how to run a business is magically able to run a charitable foundation, which seems to consist of just approving scholarship applications and manning the adoptions desk at a pet shelter. I can get behind a miracle from God causing someone with massive brain injuries to suddenly wake from a coma with no neuro deficits, but all my sensibilities cry out at the notion that his visitors were allowed to store 9 boxes full of books in his ICU room alongside his ventilator and other medical equipment. That same ICU room also held an entire choir of carolers who came in to sing him awake. I’m not sure where those carolers were all standing. I imagined them perched on top of his ventilator, clinging to his IV poles, balancing on boxes of books, and sitting on each other’s laps along both sides of his bed.

Then there’s the thought processes employed by the characters, especially the main protagonists. The entire plot of lovers wrongfully separated for years hinges on the guy just accepting that the woman he desperately loves is planning to marry another, just because her overbearing father calls him up out of the blue and says so, and despite her already having explicitly told him she won’t. He doesn’t even ask her about it, and she doesn’t ask him why he’s suddenly turned cold. This goes on for years, and continues when they meet up again. Finally, after 5 minutes conversation, the misunderstanding is all cleared up and they’re going to live happily ever after, because of course they’re suddenly capable of having a mature and adult relationship.

Ugh.

Audiobook version, borrowed from my public library via Overdrive. January LaVoy’s performance was the best thing about this book.

I read this for the 2017 Romance Bingo reading challenge. This book clearly fits the square for TSTL (too stupid to live).
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It is almost Christmas time again! To celebrate, I am reviewing a book that takes place during the Christmas season. The story is set in the present with glimpses of the past (seven years prior) scattered throughout the book. The perspective frequently changes between Ryan, Molly, and Charlie.
As a bookworm, I greatly appreciate that the story is centered around a small, local bookstore. I thought the plot was great, except that it was very predictable with the many misunderstandings between the characters.
I always read this book at Christmastime and would recommend for others to as well. This short read, almost novella-like book, is perfect for a cold, December evening. ( )

Molly Allen and Ryan Kelly meet as students at Belmont College. They come from different backgrounds. Ryan grew up in Carthage, Mississippi and aspires to be a studio musician. Molly's father owns a large shipping company in San Francisco and wants her to manage that company and marry Preston Millington. She dreams of playing violin in a symphony orchestra. Since Molly and Ryan share a music major, some of their courses are the same. Although her parents' Brentwood home provides an ideal setting, she knows the house's servants would report Molly's study dates to her father who would then make her come back to San Francisco. Instead, they find an ideal place at a Franklin bookstore called "The Bridge" owned by Charlie and Donna Barton. Something goes wrong, and both go their separate ways. The devastating "Nashville flood" plays a major role in this Hallmark movie-style tale. I listened to the audio and enjoyed the narrator. ( )

In this novel we follow the connected story of four characters – Molly Allen, Ryan Kelly and Charlie & Donna Barton. Charlie and Donna own and run a bookstore called The Bridge, where Molly and Ryan spent a lot of their free time at during their first two years of college. They were inseparable, to the point where Charlie and Donna were convinced they’d be married someday.

But then Molly left.

Ryan never knew why.

Now it’s years later. Molly is running a successful branch of her father’s business, Ryan has toured the country as the lead guitarist of a famous country singer, and Charlie and Donna are trying to keep The Bridge alive after a flood completely wipes out the inside of their store.

The story of Molly and Ryan was one that is going to stay on my heart for some time. Call me a sucker, but I love a good story of two long-lost soul mates reuniting after a number of years have passed. I also enjoyed reading from the perspectives of Charlie and Donna and learning about their backgrounds and connection to Molly and Ryan. Like me, they were rooting for the two to get together when they were in college.

This was my first ever Karen Kingsbury book that I’ve read. My mom had told me she’s a great Christian-fiction writer and I can see why. This book brought tears to my eyes a number of times and at the same time warmed my heart. It was refreshing to read a book that focuses on the faith of the characters and their relationship with God as well as each other. I’m actually currently reading another book of hers and I can tell you I will continue to read more books by her. She’s definitely becoming one of my favorite authors.

One last note is that I fell in love with the bookstore their story revolves around, to the point that it makes me wish there was a small, homey bookstore just like The Bridge in my town. I guess I’ll just have to settle for opening one with my mom someday.

Anyway, I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a heartwarming story. ( )

3.5 stars (rating may vary depending on site and whether it allows half star ratings to show):
Warning: Spoilers Possible in Review--Read at your own Discretion:

****

Two couples:

Donna and Charlie are older but still in love. For 30 years they ran The Bridge bookstore but a flood has destroyed all the inventory, the insurance wasn't enough to do repairs AND buy more books, and they've exhausted all their earthly efforts to find capital.

Molly and Ryan met as college students. Ryan, a guitarist, had a girl back home. Molly, a violinist and eventual heiress, had parents who were determined to see her married to a guy back home. Because Molly's father would pull her back home if he found out she was seeing another guy, they start hanging out after classes at The Bridge--and eventually fall in love. Though their feelings for each other persist, a series of miscommunications drives them apart.

Ryan goes on to have a several years ride as a guitar player for a successful country group based out of Nashville. He never marries the girl back home. So now he finds himself without a long-term paying gig and trying to decide if he should go back to live near his father and take a job as a music teacher. When he reads about Charlie's hospitalization and then hears about the rest of the story from Donna, he decides to do something about it.

Molly got recalled home but put her foot down with her father. She and the man her father had picked out did not marry. Molly's parents died and she moved away from where they lived. She finds out about Charlie's hospitalization on the town's Twitter feed and goes back, knowing full well that she'll probably run into Ryan--so she wears her mother's wedding ring.

It's Karen Kingsbury--so you know things will work out somehow, but I liked it better than some other of her books that I've read recently. ( )