Book Review - From The Start

It's book review time.  Due to recent computer and e-mail issues I wasn't able to post my review last month.    This review is for From the Start by Melissa Tagg.  I received a copy of this book from Bethany House for my honest review.

Excerpt from Bethany House Publishing:

Kate Walker used to believe in true love and happily ever after. While her own love life may have left her brokenhearted, it hasn't kept her from churning out made-for-TV romance movie screenplays...until a major career slump and a longing to do something meaningful send her running back to her hometown of Maple Valley.

Permanently sidelined by an injury, former NFL quarterback Colton Greene is temporarily hiding out in a friend's hometown to avoid the media and the reminders of all he's lost. Maple Valley seems like the perfect place to learn how to adjust to normal life. The only trouble is he's never really done normal before.

While Kate plays things safe and Colton is all about big risks and grand gestures, they both get what it's like to desperately need direction in life. An unexpected project gives them both a chance to jump start their new lives, but old wounds and new dreams are hard to ignore. Starting over wasn't part of the plan, but could it be the best thing that's ever happened to them?


My thoughts:  This was a "fun" read.  -  I enjoy light hearted books that make you feel good when you are reading them and this certainly fit that category in my opinion.  The character's were believable and you wanted to root for them getting together right from the start.

I think the author did a great job introducing each character and leading you into how they met and how their lives lead them to the place they needed to be.

I think if I had one criticism at all it would be that the small town of Maple Valley sounded a little to "good to be true".  I know small towns can be very close knit but everyone in this town seemed to know each other and support each other no matter what happened.  I'm not sure if in today's world that people actually would pull together that much to help each other out.  Granted not having lived in that small of a town I can't really say for sure if that is feasible or not.  It just seemed a little too much in my opinion.

Other than that I really enjoyed the book and being a Football fan I enjoyed reading about Colton and his career.  I also enjoy romance movies so to know that Kate wrote romance scripts for movies was also fun.

I also liked how there were various other characters in the book like Kate's family, the different town folk and people from Colton's past that were interwoven into the story.  You really got a sense of who these people were and what made them the kind of people they were in the story.

I would recommend this book if you enjoy an easy, light-hearted romance.