Monday, September 4, 2017

The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck by Bethany Turner

I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to post this as I received an advanced reading copy of this book.  So, I'm feeling a bit of pressure considering it was a "gift".  In summary, The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck, a delight for those who love contemporary romance, encounters Sarah Hollenbeck, a famous risque romance writer that has a very abrupt career and life change when she attends church one Sunday and decides to dedicate her life to Jesus Christ. With her new found faith she must walk away from the world of erotic novels and into the world of bible scriptures and tithing.

Any genre of romance is artful deception. This manuscript is no exception. The characters fall in love too fast, make life changes too fast, and adopt new ideals and principles too fast. Although, I must say that Turner avoids the sweet sappiness that makes me turn up my nose at romance novels. I will consider that this is an uncorrected proof and hope that the final edition includes a solid foundation with a little more meat and potatoes. This version is very skeletal and doesn't begin to touch the surface when considering the struggles that a rich and famous secular novelist would endure when switching to a life of Christianity and diving head first into a relationship with her pastor. I guess I was looking for more and this book didn't give it to me.

seebethanywrite.com

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