Review + #GIVEAWAY: Finding Love in Eureka, California by Angela Ruth Strong

Finding Love in Eureka, California
By Angela Ruth Strong
Resort to Love #5
Mountain Brook Ink, 2018


Summary

Raised in a family of six adopted siblings, Genevieve Wilson fights to keep her dysfunctional brothers and sisters together, but everyone still seems to leave. If she’s not good enough to prevent her birth parents from giving her up or her siblings from abandoning her, then there’s no way she would ever be enough to have a lasting relationship with the cute pilot from work…which is exactly what makes him a safe subject for her daydreams.

Matt Lake is dating the perfect woman and working a great job. Life is easy until he starts to enjoy hanging out with the airline employees more than with his girlfriend—one sweet female employee in particular. He tells himself he’s only intrigued by Gen’s quirkiness, but nobody else makes him smile the way she does.

Can Matt give up the flawless life he’d planned in exchange for the messiness of love? And if so, will  Gen risk her heart on reality when it’s never paid off in the past?


My thoughts

Wasn’t that what everyone wanted – to be seen as their

imperfect selves and loved anyway?

Finding Love in Eureka, California … Okay, that sounds like a romance, right? And while it is that, I was not expecting all the rich characterization, emotional depth, and real-life experiences of this book. Angela Ruth Strong is a skilled, mature writer who knows how to entertain while giving you much to reflect upon – maybe even causing you to examine your faith in the process. This is a strong Christian story in subtle ways that have a huge impact.

Matt and Gen are such likeable lead characters, easy to connect with because they try to do the right thing, but have their own particular flaws just like we do. There are plenty of light, humorous moments, one of my favorites being the little texting photo game they played. A lot of the scenes take place in the Eureka airport, where Gen is the station manager, and I enjoyed these glimpses behind the scenes.

But what makes this story so rich and relevant is the realism of topics that aren’t often seen in Christian fiction, such as adultery, rape, drug addiction, enabling, generational curses, and physical disability. The whole generational curse idea and how it related to Gen and her five adopted siblings was extremely thought provoking, and it was impressive the way the author handled these tough themes. Gen focused “on what her curse might be rather than how she was blessed. Maybe that was the real curse.”

Gen’s sister and yoga instructor, Rosie, was one of my favorites – a motivational speaker who “could make an ugly duckling feel like a swan.” I made a note of Rosie’s words to Gen, regarding enabling: “When you do something for someone else that they could do for themselves, you ultimately harm them.” And I came away with an appreciation for how yoga can be used for Christian meditation. But “goat yoga”? I’d love to see that in practice!

I thoroughly enjoyed Finding Love in Eureka, California and look forward to much more from Angela Ruth Strong. In fact, I’d love for her to write a series based on Gen’s siblings.

Recommended.

I was provided a copy of this book through Mountain Brooks, Inc. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

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Angela Ruth Strong writes light-hearted and life-changing love stories. The "light-hearted" part comes from her ability to get into interesting situations--such as a hamster ball race or riding on the shoulders of a unicyclist.

The "life-changing" part comes from the power of God's love and the beauty of her very own romance.

The "story" part comes from her passion for books that she got from her writer mama. And there's nothing else she'd rather do than share these stories with you. Find out more (than you ever wanted to know) at www.angelaruthstrong.com.

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GIVEAWAY

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