Description: Former free spirit Zoe Collins swore she’d never again set foot in Copper Creek or speak to the man who broke her heart. But return she must when her beloved Granny dies, leaving the family legacy to Zoe--a peach orchard nestled at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
When Zoe returns home with her daughter and boyfriend Kyle, she finds that she’s the only person in town who doesn’t expect her to give up the life she’s established far away from Copper Creek. Everyone believes she was born to run the orchard, but how can she make it her home after so many years?
Cruz Huntley never quite got over his first love Zoe Collins, the little sister of his best friend Brady. Not when she cheated on him during their “break,” not when she took off to parts unknown with good-for-nothing Kyle Jenkins, and not even now—five years later.
As life-changing decisions and a history with Cruz hang over Zoe’s head, tensions rise between her and Kyle. Even as she comes to terms with the shifting relationships in her life, Zoe still isn’t sure if she can remain in Copper Creek with her new responsibilities . . . and her first love.
My Thoughts: The first thing I thought when I started this book was, "Holy backstory, Batman!" (I don't know why I referenced Batman at the time, but I did), because the dialogue of the first chapter is laden with characters telling each other things that they already know, just so that we, the reader, are aware of their history as well. The next few chapters build other character relationships in much the same way: telling us about the issues Brady has with his and Zoe's Dad instead of showing it along with the father's disappointment in Zoe, telling us what their grandmother was like, rather than showing it in flashback chapters which come soon after.
That is not to say that I disliked the book. Though both Zoe and Cruz had a past that I personally found unrelatable, their current fears in the story were something I understood. I sympathized with Cruz' anger over being lied too and his fear of not being good enough as well as Zoe's fear of loosing her daughter and her own hurt of being told by her own father that she wasn't good enough. Since I knew that these characters could support each other, I wanted them to get over their hurts and reconcile. And though that reconciliation came about far too simply in my mind, I was happy to get time to see them as an actual couple dealing with the struggles of life, something that I believe does not happen often enough in fiction.
As to the faith element of the novel, which I have seen numerous other reviews comment on, I will agree that the faith is pretty watered down. Though Cruz and Zoe both attend church and Zoe makes a remark about how far she had fallen, there is no real grapple with their beliefs or mention of what change God has brought to their lives. And the sexual relationship that they had had is only addressed so far as the fact that they had been keeping it a secret, not that they shouldn't have been engaging in that behavior in the first place. While this was not a sticking point for me, as I do not require the characters in books I read to hold to the same moral standards that I do (I just don't want to READ a sex scene), it is something that I think should be mentioned when discussing the merits of a novel advertised as "Christian".
This is definitely a book that I believe will appeal one group of people while repelling another. For Christians seeking for a romance that mirrors their personal beliefs on sex and faith, then this is probably not for them. However, for others who are looking for a strong romance without all the sex scenes or else preaching, then this is a good fit despite the initial bits of telling.
I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of the book through the Fiction Guild.
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