Summer Romance in the Adirondacks

Katherine Osborne, a young widow, has been running the Osborne orange groves since the death of her husband. Exhausted by the strain of money problems and crop failures, she agrees to return to her family's camp in the Adirondacks for the summer. The return, however, comes with strings. In exchange for a loan from her father to get her through harvest, she agrees to accept her mother's social obligations. Unfortunately, her mother's idea of social obligations is to find her a husband, preferably her best friend's son, Randy. Katherine, however, has other ideas including a relationship with Randy's cousin, Andrew.

On the positive side, this book has a Christian theme of forgiveness and wonderful locations: the central Florida citrus groves, and Racquette Lake in the Adirondacks. It makes a wonderful escape for summer reading. Some of the characters, although stereotypes, are fun to read about. Mama and Mrs. Clarke, Randy's mother, are particularly amusing.

On the negative side, Katherine, Randy and Andrew are also stereotypes and rather boring. Andrew spends so much time ruminating about Katherine you wonder how he managed to find time to eat and sleep. It's rather tedious. It's also hard to imagine Katherine having the gumption to run a citrus grove when she can't seem to stand up to her domineering mother.

I can recommend this book only if you like light Christian romance. The writing is pedestrian and the dialog stilted. However, it has amusing moments.

I reviewed this book for the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze Program.