Can Sam find... Love Everlasting by Julie Lessman (Blog Tour Review & Giveaway)


It was nice coming back to Isle of Hope and being around the O'Bryen family again.
Check out my thoughts and enter the giveaway below...

Love Everlasting (Isle of Hope, #2)Love Everlasting
(Isle of Hope #2)
by Julie Lessman
Christian Contemporary Romance
ebook, 307 Pages
September 30th 2016

Summary

He sets hearts on fire.
She’s been burned by love.
Can hope survive the flames of the past?

School teacher by day, ghostwriter by night, sweet and shy Shannon O’Bryen doesn’t mind writing romance on the sly, but to live it? No, thank you, not since the man she loved turned out to be a player who broke both her heart and her spirit. Now focused more on her faith and her fiction, she vows the next time she falls in love, it will be safely—through the pages of a book.

Dr. Sam Cunningham is a charismatic player who breaks hearts as regularly as he washes his pearl-white Corvette. Abandoned as a young child, Sam was 

an orphan shuffled through the foster-care system, bitterly driven to prove he is worthy of love—the kind that lasts forever. Once he learns Shannon is a romance writer, he enlists her help in winning back his ex-girlfriend. She teaches him about faith and the true definition of love, and he soon discovers he’s been seeking it in the wrong place all along—and with the wrong girl. But can he convince a woman who's been burned by love to open her eyes—and her heart—to a love everlasting?​​

 
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My Review

LOVE EVERLASTING was a sweet, heartfelt story about two people who had been hurt in the past and had to work at letting go and letting God in so they could be open to love. With small-town charm, close family relationships, fun banter, and sizzling, while also being clean, romance makes for an enjoyable read for inspirational readers.

What I liked:
- I loved the O'Bryen family! I love the way they tease and support and love. I loved their faith, even those who are struggling. I loved how they interact. Just a great family!
- I loved the romance. There are two main romantic stories and then a hint at another (hopefully for book three). It was sweet while also bringing on the chemistry.
- I liked seeing Sam and Shannon both work through some things. They both have parts of their pasts that were difficult and they had to learn to make some changes, specifically to their hearts, to make things work.
- It was fun seeing Jack and Lacey again and seeing them deal with some struggles of their own.
- I loved getting to visit Camp Hope again. I loved the scenes that take place there and the needy, lovable kids.
- I loved all the other characters and that no one felt one-dimensional. They all pretty much came alive.
- I liked that the author doesn't gloss over natural feelings. Like the way Jack is utterly in love with his wife and completely attracted to her. Or, there's the way that Sam deals with his desires with Jazz and Shannon. The author doesn't just omit them. She's pretty blunt, but she also shows the way the characters deal with it, that's it's natural and that it can be controlled or enjoyed based on the relationship. She also doesn't give any details, so it remains clean and tasteful.

What I didn't like:
- Some of the inspirational moments felt just a little too forced. I couldn't hear people actually saying some of the things the characters did, or maybe not in the same way they did or with the same approach. These were just some of the moments though. There were others that I thought were really well done.
- Some of the drama and romance was a little too much for me and stretched out.
- The nicknames and name addressing was really redundant and used a lot. It felt like every switch in dialogue contained one character addressing the other with a title or name or nickname. Most people might do that every so often or if it's a big group of people, but not every single sentence. It just got old and a lot of the names and nicknames kind of lost their meaning from being overused.
- It seems like everyone dates everyone at some point and that's kind of small-town thing, I know, but it just felt off to me.

In the end, was it what I wished for? I enjoyed this story, while also wanted more from it. 

Content: Some innuendo and references to partying, but clean.

Source: Received a complimentary copy through the Singing Library Tours, which did not affect my review in any way.

Other Books in the Series

Unfailing Love (Isle of Hope, #1)Title
(Isle of Hope #1)
by Julie Lessman
Christian Contemporary Romance
ebook, 425 Pages
November 1st 2015

Summary

She stole his heart.
He stole her peace.
Can hope steal their pain?

At the age of eighteen, Lacey Carmichael was a wild girl bent on fun, promised to Jack Carmichael, a straight-and-narrow pastor’s kid bent on the seminary. When her father kicks her out of the house, she runs away from Isle of Hope, turning her back on everything she loves. Now, eight years later, she’s back as a woman of faith, hoping to make amends to the father she defied, the boyfriend she deserted, and the best friend she denied. Only the bridges she’s burned are still smoldering, kindled by an adulterous affair by Jack’s pastor father that damaged his son’s faith. But can a turning of tables—and hearts—lead the way back to “hope” for them all?

You can see my review here.

 
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About the Author


Julie Lessman is an award-winning author whose tagline of “Passion With a Purpose” underscores her intense passion for both God and romance. A lover of all things Irish, she enjoys writing close-knit Irish family sagas that evolve into 3-D love stories: the hero, the heroine, and the God that brings them together.

Author of The Daughters of Boston, Winds of Change, and Heart of San Francisco series, Julie Lessman was named American Christian Fiction Writers 2009 Debut Author of the Year and has garnered 17 Romance Writers of America and other awards. Voted #1 Romance Author of the year in Family Fiction magazine’s 2012 and 2011 Readers Choice Awards, Julie was also named on Booklist’s 2010 Top 10 Inspirational Fiction and Borders Best Fiction list.

Julie’s most recent novel, Isle of Hope was voted on Family Fiction magazine’s Best of 2015, and Surprised by Love appeared on Family Fiction magazine’s list of Top Ten Novels of 2014. Her independent novel A Light in the Window is an International Digital Awards winner, a 2013 Readers' Crown Award winner, and a 2013 Book Buyers Best Award winner. Julie has also written a self-help workbook for writers entitled Romance-ology 101: Writing Romantic Tension for the Sweet and Inspirational Markets. You can contact Julie through her website and read excerpts from each of her books at www.julielessman.com.

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