Carol Steward

A story of a little girl who is stolen from her mother (Jessica Mathers) and the search to find her with the help of Detective Samuel Vance. Could be a stand alone story easily, but if you read these stories in order you will get to know more background on the main characters in this story. Sam will discover that Jessica is not the flighty young woman he thought she was, but a warm caring woman, who would do anything to get her daughter back. A quick read, but a full story, with drama and romance all rolled in to the book.… (mere)

Tori Sandoval left her small town of Segundo, Colorado and became a big-city high school principal. Now her grandparents need her to come home again and help them out while her grandma recovers from a bad fall. There she meets widowed Steve Remington, who willingly moved back to this town with his children. He encourages her to take the open position as the town's school administrator, while he helps her out as a principal/teacher at the school. Tori very reluctantly agrees and as the story progreses Steve will help Tori to understand the true meaning of "home". Good story about leaving home and having to return.… (mere)

The back cover blurb isn't entirely descriptive of this book. There's a whole section that occurs before Jessica's surgery. Sam seems more reluctant to be a participant in the bachelor auction than he does to get involved in the investigation of Amy's kidnapping. And Sam seems to be well on his way to discovering that Jessica is a warm, caring woman long before the plot has them start searching for Amy.

I've heard friends say they "just knew" that the other person was the right one to become their spouse. So I guess the pull between Sam and Jessica could happen in real life. But I think Jessica had it right when she said she wasn't really in any position to be making major decisions about a long-term relationship. She's had major surgery and is on painkillers--prescription ones that are apparently powerful enough to make her sleep. She's also distraught about Amy going missing (which is entirely correct) and the stress of that coupled with her medical stuff--she really should be waiting to make a life decision. And given her history with Tim, I have a hard time believing she'd jump in so easily with both feet.

On the plus side, stress does seem to tear masks off people so she has seen Sam in that way and he has seen her. She does say that even when they're fighting or she's mad at him, she knows that he loves her. Sam seems to be a caring man.

Still, the wedding seems rushed into to me and not something I could support in real life.

I also had a bit of concern with Jessica's and Sam's discussion about using God as a crutch. I almost kind of felt like the author had to force a Biblical moral lesson into the text because it doesn't really flow for me. I have no idea why Sam thought Jessica was using God as a crutch at that particular point of the story. It just didn't jibe for me. God is our helper, our comforter. He wants us to reach out for him when we're hurting. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with leaning on God when the world seems out of control?

I can see that if it's done excessively or in the wrong way, it (the crutch) could be a bad thing, but that didn't seem to apply to Jessica at the time they had the conversation.

So I have a theological issue with the story as well as reservations about the relationship.… (mere)