Susan May Warren is such a great storyteller. She creates characters you can’t help but fall in love with — you laugh with them, cry with them, celebrate with them. And she does it yet again in “When I Fall in Love” — the third installment in the Christiansen Family series.
I always anxiously await any new book that features the Christiansens or the lovely little town of Deep Haven, Minnesota. Warren’s books never disappoint, offering up great story lines and even better spiritual lessons.
In “When I Fall in Love,” we find sister Grace having dreams of pursuing a culinary career, but too full of fears to really stop out on her own. She is perfectly content to find her happiness in Deep Haven. Frankly, as she puts it, she doesn’t chase after what she wants. Eventually she learns she needs to face her own selfishness, fears and anger to live a life of total fulfillment.
Maxwell Sharpe is a hockey player for the St. Paul Blue Ox. Every summer he travels to Hawaii for a three-week culinary school — the same program Grace’s family decides to send her to. Her future brother-in-law and former Blue Ox player, Jace, asks his former teammate to keep an eye on the homebody.
After initial hesitation on both of their parts, once in Hawaii Grace and Max quickly develop a deep friendship. Could it lead to more? And in the meantime, back at home, her friend Raina starts developing a relationship with Grace’s brother Casper.
The problem is both Max and Raina have devastating, life-altering secrets that are keeping both of them from pursuing true love.
Susan May Warren takes us on an exhilarating journey hitting pretty much every emotion out there. But she also fills “When I Fall in Love” with so many awesome nuggets of truth. We must all stop living in the past, as Jace points out to Max, or the past is going to eat you alive. This story encourages us to reach out and discover what we’ve been longing for — to not be afraid to go after it. No matter what that means. As Grace hears at a beach service: “The key to finding what God has for you is not reaching out for paradise … but letting go. Falling. Losing control.”
This book also shows us that, at times, suffering is a very real part of life — but it forces us into God’s arms; we cannot allow suffering to steal the richness of living.
“When I Fall in Love” is another fantastic offering from Susan May Warren. She just keeps hitting them out of the ball park!
Five stars out of five.
Tyndale House Publishers provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.
“The amazing, whole, overwhelming, abundant life is found, oddly, by letting go. By living a dangerous faith — the kind of faith that believes in a God who knows our hearts and loves us enough to take our breath away.”
“This is the transformation Jesus intends for us, a wholeness, a closeness in our relationship with God that is beyond our wildest hopes.”
“When I Fall in Love” (a Christiansen Family novel) by Susan May Warren
I always anxiously await any new book that features the Christiansens or the lovely little town of Deep Haven, Minnesota. Warren’s books never disappoint, offering up great story lines and even better spiritual lessons.
In “When I Fall in Love,” we find sister Grace having dreams of pursuing a culinary career, but too full of fears to really stop out on her own. She is perfectly content to find her happiness in Deep Haven. Frankly, as she puts it, she doesn’t chase after what she wants. Eventually she learns she needs to face her own selfishness, fears and anger to live a life of total fulfillment.
Maxwell Sharpe is a hockey player for the St. Paul Blue Ox. Every summer he travels to Hawaii for a three-week culinary school — the same program Grace’s family decides to send her to. Her future brother-in-law and former Blue Ox player, Jace, asks his former teammate to keep an eye on the homebody.
After initial hesitation on both of their parts, once in Hawaii Grace and Max quickly develop a deep friendship. Could it lead to more? And in the meantime, back at home, her friend Raina starts developing a relationship with Grace’s brother Casper.
The problem is both Max and Raina have devastating, life-altering secrets that are keeping both of them from pursuing true love.
Susan May Warren takes us on an exhilarating journey hitting pretty much every emotion out there. But she also fills “When I Fall in Love” with so many awesome nuggets of truth. We must all stop living in the past, as Jace points out to Max, or the past is going to eat you alive. This story encourages us to reach out and discover what we’ve been longing for — to not be afraid to go after it. No matter what that means. As Grace hears at a beach service: “The key to finding what God has for you is not reaching out for paradise … but letting go. Falling. Losing control.”
This book also shows us that, at times, suffering is a very real part of life — but it forces us into God’s arms; we cannot allow suffering to steal the richness of living.
“When I Fall in Love” is another fantastic offering from Susan May Warren. She just keeps hitting them out of the ball park!
Five stars out of five.
Tyndale House Publishers provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.
“The amazing, whole, overwhelming, abundant life is found, oddly, by letting go. By living a dangerous faith — the kind of faith that believes in a God who knows our hearts and loves us enough to take our breath away.”
“This is the transformation Jesus intends for us, a wholeness, a closeness in our relationship with God that is beyond our wildest hopes.”
“When I Fall in Love” (a Christiansen Family novel) by Susan May Warren