Spring's Promise

Title: Spring's Promise

Author: Gloria Brandt, Rebecca Germany, Tracie Peterson & Debra White Smith

Publisher: Heartsong/Barbour

ISBN: 1577485017

More Information: www.barbourbooks.com

My Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

2.5 stars
E-Love by Gloria Brandt

Gwen Paulson should be happy with her life.  She has a secure job as a programmer, owned her own home, and has a blossoming relationship on the internet.  When an old crush from high school showed up, old insecurities reared their ugly heads.  As she got to re-know Alex Marshall, her crush was just as strong as ever.  But what about her online guy, George?

I wasn’t a big fan of the heroine.  After a traumatic experience in  high school, her confidence took a major hit and even after all these years, she still cried when she recalled the events.  She was too wishy-washy and the fact she has no friends, as a reader, you felt more pity than kinship to her plight.  When Alex showed up unexpectedly, she did her best to avoid him and threw her online relationship at him.  Her attitude was childish at best.  Alex was the best part of the story.  Alex was a decent guy, who really embraced his faith.  And it showed when he interacted with the heroine.  Unfortunately, there was a limited amount of space in an anthology and so, the ending felt rushed.  Even though they had a history, how and when they really got to know each other in a month’s time and fell in love?  To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what Alex saw in her.

An interesting plot line that had potential but fell miserably flat.  There was too many gaps to make the plot flowed smoothly.  But the major downer was the heroine.  Since most of the story was from her third-person POV, it was a depressing read.  Other than that, the other characters were engaging and brought some color into an otherwise dreary story.  This was a miss.

3 stars
The Garden Plot by Rebecca Germany

Debra Julian recently bought her grandmother's home to take care of her.  At her grandmother's request, she started a vegetable garden in the backyard.  Unfortunately, parts of her garden went over to her neighbor's yard.  Scott Robillard was not happy about the damage but when he got a closer look at the culprit, maybe the garden wasn't such a bad idea after all.

On this rare occasion, the beginning felt rushed.  In the third chapter, the hero stated clearly that he was not looking for a relationship.  Then suddenly in the next chapter, somehow the heroine became his ideal woman and he wanted to marry her.  Why the sudden change of heart when she hadn’t done anything?  If they had a history, it would be understandable.  But they really don’t have one.  Other than that, the story was a decent read.  I found the hero charming.  I like his possessiveness and his willingness to seek advice when he didn’t want to lose her.  The heroine was your typical clumsy heroine who was fighting her attraction to him.  The writing was good.  The plot was a little weak.  The side characters were used well, since the hero and heroine were misunderstanding each other half the time.   The events were timely placed and kind of humorous.  But still, a frail plot, lackluster heroine, this story could have been better.

4 stars
Stormy Weather by Tracie Peterson

Gina Bowden needed help.  Building a race car for her son was definitely outside her area of expertise, so she called her son’s boy scout leader, Gary Cameron.  From the moment they met, something just clicked for them.  As storms, nature and manmade, were thrown at them, love and admiration grew steadily as they weathered it together.

In general, the falling in love portion was really rushed but the author made it believable.  I found the characters very honest with their feelings from the start and they were without artifice.  There were a few of events that grabbed your attention and a little adversity to keep the emotional portion up.  Gina and Gary were made for each other.  I especially found Gina admirable.  The way she expressed her self on the issue on the Boy scouts and religion was well thought out and reasonable.  Good writing, good characters and a decent plot line made this story the best out of the anthology.  If this novel was the normal length of 180+ pages, this story could’ve been a 5 star book.  As is, it stays at 4.

2 stars
Bride to Be by Debra White Smith

Amy Matthews has been looking for the man of her dreams for 30+ year and when she finally met him, he was marrying someone else.  Was she destined to be alone for the rest of her life?

This is my least favorite story line.  Having said that, I could not feel symphathy for Amy Matthews.  Her desperation for a husband made me winced and considering she has not done anything to find herself one, I could not like her.  But near the end, she redeemed herself.  Amy realized that she had to learn to love herself first.  Paul was an okay hero.  The only person I found to be a strong person was Paul's fiancee, Jill.  Her attitude was very mature and her feelings were relatable.  Considering she was the one to decide to break off the engagement, Jill deserved a lot of credit.

All in all, I would suggest skipping this book.  It was a fast read but I think another book would be a better investment for your time and money.  The plot and characters weren’t strong enough for me to recommend.