"A Love Like Ours" Book Review

What a joy it was to read the latest book Bethany House Publishers sent me to review.  The newly-published novel A Love Like Ours by Becky Wade was well worth my time.

This is a story of Lyndie James and Jake Porter, who seemed inseparable as children until Lyndie’s family had to move away to California when they were still children.  They had a special bond, and adored one another.

The Prologue gives us a clue as to how close, opening with:

"Twelve-year-old Jake Porter never felt a hundred percent right unless Lyndie James was beside him.

She was his sidekick.  Or maybe he was hers.  She was the one with the flair and the imagination.  He was the one with the even temper and the sense.

They were a pair."

Twenty years later we find Lyndie returning to the town of Holly, Texas, home of her childhood memories, hoping to get a job at the Porter family ranch, Whispering Hills Horses.  It’s there that she looks for her old childhood friend, Jake Porter, who is now a former marine who suffers from PTSD. While he knew nothing about what she’d been up to all those years, she knew all about his career as a top-notch Thoroughbred horse trainer.  What she didn’t know was how badly hurt and damaged the war had left him.

Jake Porter reluctantly hires Lyndie to exercise the horses, and Lyndie finds herself dismayed, but hopeful, about Jake’s negative attitude.  Lyndie strongly but gently pushes Jake to let go of the hurts he’s harboring, hoping that he can heal when he gets a clear view of who God is, all the while asking God to use her in the process.

While feelings resurface from their childhood where Jake often protected Lyndie, we see Jake take on that same roll as Lyndie pushes more toward riding the race horses competitively.

Not only does Lyndie have her hands full with Jake, she finds herself in the position of trying find out why one of the stallions won’t run. 

There is also an underlying story of redemptive love for Lyndie’s new friend (and neighbor) Amber that keeps you cheering for good as well.

Overall this is a wonderful story that kept me eagerly reading from cover-to-cover.  I could easily relate to the characters, and enjoyed the real-life situations author Becky Wade wonderfully penned with perfectly-placed humor, sass and seriousness.  I enjoyed the redeeming theme that not only relates to the characters, but comes across with hope to the reader as well.  I highly recommend A Love Like Ours to anyone who enjoys Modern Christian Romance novels and wants a truly good read.  I’m sure you’ll find it as much of a delight as I did.

I give this one a definite “two thumbs up”!