I just finished a great book. OF GRACE AND CHOCOLATE by Krista Lynne Jensen pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting something of the consistency of whipped cream when I thumbed it off the shelf in my local bookstore. Not that fluffy isn't a good read.
But this book had some steak.
This a story about Jillian Parrish, a publishing assistant who likes things nice and smooth. She, like many publishing employees, hopes to get her own book published. On the way to the editor's desk, she comes up against a speed bump in the form of Scott Gentry, a guy from her past who has come back to haunt her.
But he has no idea who she is.
He wants a date in the worst way, something she's not willing to provide, since he broke her heart and disappeared into the woodwork.
After squeaking her book in just under the deadline she goes home to pickle herself in a hot bath with a great read, but on the way inside she finds a rather uncomfortable new addition to her home: a runaway sister and her baby girl.
Jill goes all out to try and help Evie pick up the shattered pieces of what life she had scraped up. Unfortunately little sister Everlisse disappeared with the morning shadows, leaving Jill with a baby she was unequipped to handle.
Jill comes home to find her home ransacked and everything broken. Apparently little sis has some fairly dangerous acquaintances who are bent on finding her at all costs. Luckily good friends ride to the girls' rescue and set the ball rolling to find her runaway sister. They offer Jill a haven at their beach house.
Who walks down the beach toward her as she tries to fish the pieces of her life from the whirlpool? The one guy she's not dying to see. Somehow they navigate through the shoals of their rocky re-start to find a safer haven. They think. Scott loves Shiloh and seems to know what to do about almost everything. They go in search of the little one's runaway mother.
When they finally catch up to the elusive Evie, sheet lightning strikes and life will never be the same.
The whole book is a hurricane of past storms coming back to whip around them, mixed with grace and a little chocolate.
I really enjoyed this slightly gritty offering. This is what real life looks like when you're looking for tomorrow. It was well written and poignant.
