One Perfect Spring by Irene Hannon

One Perfect Spring by Irene Hannon ISBN-13: 9780800722678 Trade Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Revell Released: May 6, 2014

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Claire Summers is a determined, independent single mother who is doing her best to make lemonade out of the lemons life has handed her. Keith Watson is a results-oriented workaholic with no time for a social life. As the executive assistant to a local philanthropic businessman, he’s used to fielding requests for donations. But when a letter from Claire’s eleven-year-old daughter reaches his desk, everything changes. The girl isn’t asking for money, but for help finding the long-lost son of an elderly neighbor.

As Keith digs reluctantly into this complicated assignment, he has no idea how intertwined his life and Claire’s will become–nor how one little girl’s kindhearted request will touch so many lives and reap so many blessings.


My Review:
One Perfect Spring is a Christian romance novel. I always enjoy romances that involve non-typical, "working" dates. The characters were nice people, though they didn't always act nice. Claire and Keith seemed like a well-suited match after they started to relax around each other. There were some unexpected and not-so-happy twists that kept the story from being too predictable.

The story was nice and I enjoyed reading it, but the characters had too many similarities for the story to feel like it really happened. For one thing, they all seem hyper-aware of the symbolism in their lives. There were many passages like (from page 186): "She slid her hands back into the oven mitts and....transferred the dish to the table as fast as she could, touching it as briefly as possible. Kind of like the way she'd handled the events that had gotten her into a mess twenty-two years ago."

I don't know anyone in real life who is so introspective or who frequently thinks about symbolism like this. The characters were also very aware of exactly why they acted the way they did, from making a snippy comment to why they overwork. One or two had reasons to have thought some of this out, but it seemed odd that all of the viewpoint characters had these similar thought patterns.

The Christian element involved characters praying for guidance (then hoping things would happen to make God's will clear) and a few characters deciding to attend church more frequently. The overall theme, though, was that things might not always turn out the way you wanted, but God had it all planned out for good.

There was no sex or bad language. I'd recommend this enjoyable story.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.