About the book: For eighteen months, Elder John Miller has served faithfully as a missionary in the jungles of Peru. Everything seems to be clicking, including his easy camaraderies with his companion, Elder Kaai, and his girl waiting for him back home. But when Kaai passes away unexpectedly, John is overwhelmed with grief, and his faith is shaken to the core. Why did God let this happen? John returns home to heal from the devastating loss. Determined to leave the past behind him, he struggles to move forward with life—to pretend Peru never happened. But Peru did happen, and the memories continue to haunt him, not to mention the confusion he feels over his relationship with his girlfriend.
It isn't until an old friend reaches out to him that John finds the lifeline he needs. Now he must decide if he can put aside his fears and love more deeply than he's ever loved before.
My review: This book sucked me into John's story from the very beginning. I really liked the character of John, he was a great guy, if a bit self-centered sometimes. I felt so sorry from him and the struggle he had with Elder Kaai dying during his mission. So sad. It was also really sad to watch John trying to live with the effects of Elder Kaai dying on him. He had a hard time doing much of anything and the guilt that he felt was oppressive. He tried to assimilate back into his old life, but in the 18 months he had been gone he had changed and so had everyone around him.
I really enjoyed the characters in this book, I enjoyed being in John's head. It was really interesting in this one that you don't see very much from anyone else's point of view. There are a few chapters from Maggie's point of view, but that's pretty much it. And any relationship stuff is only from John's point of view. I thought that Maggie was a great character as well. I thought that Eric's character was too perfect, he almost seemed a bit annoying. And I didn't really like Nicolie's character at all.
The plot is good. It's not your standard romance, although the romance it has is really good. There are a lot of twists and turns to get to the romantic ending, which I also really enjoyed. This is really a cute book with a good story, I didn't want to put it down!
I borrowed this book from my local library.
Labels: Covenant Communications, LDS Romance, Robbin J Peterson
