Love's Sweet Beginning

by Ann Shorey (Goodreads Author)

It wasn't Cassie Haddon's fault that she had managed to reach the age of twenty-five without possessing any useful skills. Until the war, she had always had servants to wait on her. Since then, she and her widowed mother had moved from place to place, relying on family to care for them. Now she's forced to find work to support them both. What isn't in her plans is falling for Jacob West, a local restaurateur and grocer. She needs a job and he needs help. But what they both need is love.

My Review: 2/10

I appreciated the attempt to show a character struggling to obey scripture. But there were too many glaring problems. The romance itself was the biggest one. Cassie and Jacob were so hot and cold, it was like every other paragraph one of them was storming out, then thinking about marrying them, then crying, then thinking they didn't deserve the other, et cetera. The constant back and forth was giving me whiplash. Then you add in all the secrets, lies, omissions, jealousy, insecurities... ugh.

Then there were the issues with scripture. When Patrick first announces his intentions, he owns that the verse referred to a man's widow. By the end of the book both he and Cassie seem to have forgotten this? Not to mention the fact that she initially rebuffs him by stating the passage refers to Old Testament. Why did she not stand firm on this? Not to mention the fact that the verse states the man's obligation to the woman. She is not required to accept. All of this is irrelevant. Cassie states that she's been told her soul hangs in the balance if she doesn't comply... She should know that there is only one Way to God, to Heaven, for salvation. And if she didn't, then the author should have taught her.

Her struggle to follow the commandment to honor her parents was not flushed out either. Honoring your parents is not simply obeying their every single command. And her duty to obey Christ and His directions come first.

I had other issues with the plot and subplots and the characters and their histories, but these were the most important ones.