Book: The Hearts We Mend

Planning and Post-It notes are the epitome of Evie's life. But when she meets Jack, her life gets more than a little complicated.

Thirteen years ago, Evie's firefighter husband was killed in the line of duty, leaving her to raise their young son, Cody, alone. Now, Cody is marrying the love of his life, and as he packs up his belongings, the house feels as empty as Evie's heart. But for all her planning and mad organizational skills, Evie could never have anticipated the dramatic shift her life is about to make.

Tattooed, rough-around-the-edges Jack raises quite a few eyebrows in the tight-knit community of Banister Falls. Where Evie's life is stream-lined, Jack's approach to living is moment-by-moment. But as Evie gets drawn into Jack's world---a world that isn't as safe or predictable as the one she's worked so hard to create---he challenges her to open her eyes to the problems outside the walls of the church.

Jack doesn't make Evie feel comfortable, but he definitely makes her feel something. Something she hasn't felt since Max passed away---or, maybe ever. Because even though Jack isn't anything like her late husband, he just might be everything she needs.

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This book is the second in a series, you can read my review of the first one from last year.  Some books can be stand alones even in a series, but I really don't recommend that with this one, you would be jumping in without a lot of the back story about Evie and most of the other main characters.

That being said... I thoroughly enjoy Kathryn's books.  Do you get first impressions of people that are hard to change, only to find out later, sometimes much later, that maybe you were way off?  I've had that happen to me a few times in my life and it makes me realize that I need to be more careful.  Everyone deserves a second chance, especially if maybe they were having an off day when you met them!

Evie is a character that seems prone to up front judgements, but her long tidy world is about to be changed with the arrival of Jack.  Added to the fact that her only son has just gotten married and moved out and Evie isn't quite sure what to do with herself, or God.

Seeing characters change so dramatically through the course of a story with this short timeline sometimes gives me pause, but maybe that's because I don't change quickly.  At any rate, it's a fun story that isn't all happy endings and butterflies, which I also appreciate.

And as a side note, the characters are much older than the cover models allow.

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Kathryn Springer is a USA Today bestselling author. She grew up in northern Wisconsin, where her parents published a weekly newspaper. As a child she spent many hours sitting at her mother's typewriter, plunking out stories, and credits her parents for instilling in her a love of books --- which eventually turned into a desire to tell stories of her own. Kathryn has written nineteen books with close to two million copies sold. She lives with her husband and three children in Marinette, Wisconsin.

I received this book from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for my fair and honest review.