Don't Expect too Much

Jenny Jones's Save the Date is a cute, funny, quick, light read. Lucy has a home for girls that's in financial trouble, as it's losing some donor funds. Alex is campaigning for governor but has a reputation for being a ladies' man. When their names are linked by the press, it raises his ratings, so he suggests they become an item to help his campaign. In return, he'll help out her charity. She's not governor's girlfriend material so enter posh older relative and artistic younger man to help (reminded me a bit of Princess Diaries and Father of the Bride, etc.). I had strong deja vu feelings almost the entire time I was reading as many of the characters and even the plot felt so familiar, stereotypical, and/or overdone, but the humor keeps you to the end, though sometimes the jokes are too much. The Julian character is a stereotypical "gay" character, which is disconcerting in a Christian novel, even though he's not explicitly labeled as gay. Bad boy Alex doesn't really express all that much remorse about his past, either, but he just seems to be the typical playboy reformed by love (and the death of his good boy twin).
The sense of not being good enough, feeling that others are looking down on you because you're not as wealthy and perfectly put together as they are and the struggle with guilt, while again, nothing new, are yet real, and I'm grateful to see these feelings portrayed as needing to be given to God. We must trust in what Christ did for us on the cross as paying for our sin and His view of us as being what truly matters. More depth and texture would be more to my taste but I'd not say reading this book was a complete waste of time. Still, don't expect too much. I received this novel from BookSneeze in order to review it.