Zeke is determined to keep Caliente Springs running despite financial trouble. When Julia walks back into his life, he's surprised at the feelings she stirs up. As they work together on an important client's wedding, the fate of the resort soon depends on their success. With Zeke and Julia both pushed to their limits, will their history put up walls between them or bring them together?
My Thoughts:
I loved, loved, loved, loved everything about this book. This was my first book of Victoria Bylin’s, but I am a fan.
This book tells the story of Julia and Zeke. They were college sweethearts but found themselves going separate ways when they could not get on the same page with their faith in God. Zeke, who was once a hard-core Christian, has turned his back on God and his faith and has landed as the general manager of a failing family resort.
Julia, once annoyed by Zeke’s faith, has landed as a single mom full of faith in God and wanting desperately to make a good life for her son. Julia now owns an event planning business, and we know as soon as she sets foot at Caliente Springs, she and Zeke are going to rekindle their old flame.
However, this book is about so much more than Julia and Zeke finding their way back to each other. This book is about God’s unconditional love and His never-ending mercy for His children. Through Julia’s character, we get to see God work through a new Christian as she sets her sights on raising her son and making a home for him. We see Julia become stronger in both her faith and her personality as this book progresses. Moreover, we see her rewarded for her unyielding faith that God will take care of her.
However, we see so much of God’s work through Zeke. Zeke has turned his back on God and believes he can never go back. Zeke is so full of guilt for his past sins he is afraid to even ask God to love him. Through Julia’s testament, Zeke begins a painful journey to reclaim his faith and return his love to God. God never promised us life was going to be easy, and Zeke sees that truth first hand. However, Zeke also gets to experience what God can do when you truly allow Him to break you down and build you back up.
This book has all the things I love in a good story. I highly recommend putting this one next on your reading list.
Known for her realistic, likable characters and vivid writing, Victoria Bylin writes both western and contemporary inspirational romance. Her next book, Until I Found You, hits the shelves in May 2014. Victoria's books have finaled in the ACFW Carol Awards, the Rita Awards and RT Magazine’s Reviewers’ Choice Awards. She and her husband currently live in Lexington, Kentucky and have two grown sons.
