Books & Spoons Review FALLING FOR THE SINGLE DAD Lisa Carter

21/8/2016

Finding Her Way Home

After fifteen years away, Dr. Caroline Duer is nervous about returning to her hometown. The veterinarian might be able to save stranded sea turtles, but she can't convince her dad of her good intentions.

And when Caroline meets darling Izzie Clark, she encounters similar suspicion from the young girl's father. Former coast guard commander Weston Clark had his life upended by Izzie's mother. He won't go through the same pain again.

But Izzie isn't the only one tumbling head over heels for the enigmatic Caroline. And if she can release the pain of the past, she just might be the missing piece Weston and his daughter have been searching for.

This story took me to a wringer and left me with tears in my eyes. What a brilliantly, beautifully written story about coming home, both literally and figuratively, to be at peace with yourself, find your place within your family, community, loved ones, and to find a peace within your faith, and to learn to trust in God and yourself.
The story goes into the deep waters about depression, both as a possibly inherited clinical illness and a deep sadness, darkness, and loneliness mourning for a loved one can take you. These issues are dealt with utter respect and knowledge, the events described very life like, real, and raw, so well set into the story that they don't stand out, but are integrated into the lives of the characters.
Faith in the Lord, trust in Him has a center focus on the story. His guidance in the characters' lives, and how He will never leave us alone, no matter how lonely we might feel, He is there guiding us home. Caroline's illness draw her into utter despair with dreadful consequences. Her journey to find the peace she needs, to be able to move on and fully live her life, isn't an easy one, but with God's help, and the support from the family, friends, and the community, she does have a fighting chance.
The story isn't all gloom and darkness. It has moments of joy and cheer, laughter and jubilee. But it does have its ups and downs just like we do in life, and with the strong trust in the Lord, Caroline and Weston goes through the storms of life, to see if their love and adoration towards each other has a possibility to be something more, the forever kind, if it is possible to come home after all turbulence in their lives.
Yes, the story took me into deep, and teared me up, but it was the faith, hope, and possibilities that laid in front of them, that had me in tears. The beauty of life and the future that Weston and Caroline found, that touched my heart and my emotions. A poignant, marvelous, graceful, and grace-filled story.
~ Five Spoons