Book Review: "Never the Bride" by Cheryl McKay & Rene Gutteridge

Being new to reviewing books via blog post, I can only pray that I am doing this correctly. :) So here goes nothing!

I recently read the book, "Never the Bride" written by Cheryl McKay & Rene Gutteridge. These are the notes that I wrote down while reading this book.

Before I am even out of the first chapter, I have decided that I really don't care for the main character. She is a fanatic! I am thinking to myself, that I am glad she had to change her own tire, and it is a good thing that she isn't married! Little "Miss Perfect" needs to step down from her perfection platform.

The story is really good though. It flows very smoothly. This girl is way too uptight! I suppose that because her life is so totally opposite mine, that I just cringe at her obsessions. Until I read this book, I had never heard of speed dating. I didn't understand what was going on until guy #2 was finished.

I personally don't care for the "God coming to life" part. To me, that seems a bit on the blasphemy level. But knowing that a lot of readers won't take it to heart as I do, I guess is okay.

I started to like her when she came to the end of her 24 hours. It is funny at first, I had no sympathy for this over obsessive female, and then she seemed to become real, when she and Blake were at the construction site. Then she had to go and blow it all by making the crack about Cover Girl and Walmart. That right there tells me that I would never be accepted in her mind ( I know, this is totally fiction and I am getting way too emotionally involved in this character) I happen to love Cover Girl, and Walmart, is all I have to shop at, for anything in my real world! Then as she starts acting upon what God asks her to do, she is a more likable person. At least to me she is.

Too good to be true! BAM! She has to go and do things her way again. At this point, I am so disgusted with the choice she has made with the ex-boyfriend, I don't even want to read the rest of the story. I am just mad at her! (What can I say? I really get into my characters. :))

Okay now that she comes to her senses and completely listens to God, I am once again relaxed with her. I totally fell out laughing with the old woman in the church that has the hearing problem. The birthday was spectacular!

Stupid again! Oh she drives me crazy! I just want to shake her, yell at her, tell her what a fool she is! Then comes Jonathan! I totally love him. Wouldn't you know it, that the one God has picked is just right for her?

As hard as it was for me to relax with this story, in the end it helped me to once again see just how truly stubborn we as humans can be. I see too, that in reality I am not too far removed from Jessie Stone. I need to trust God with my life and stop trying to do things my own way.

Thank you for this book. I really did enjoy it!!

Author Bios:

Cheryl McKay is the co-author (with Frank Peretti) of the Wild and Wacky, Totally True Bible Stories series, which has sold nearly 200,000 copies, and the screenwriter of the award-winning film The Ultimate Gift. Rene Gutteridge has published thirteen novels including Ghost Writer, My Life as a Doormat, the Boo Series, the Occupational Hazards Series, and the Storm Series. Together, McKay and Gutteridge are the authors of The Ultimate Gift, a novelization based on the feature film and popular book by the same title.

After Maine

Oh my goodness!! Praise the Lord above!!! Our trip was the best in the world! My brother and his family are so gracious and beautiful!!! I miss them so very much!!! We had such a wonderful time and I truly hated that we had to come home. Oh I sware, if it weren't for the fact that my husband just absolutly could not handle the very rough winters up there, I would move there in a heartbeat!!!

They have amazing people in their lives!! From the nurses that come in to care for my neice to the people of their church and homeschooling community!! Love and kindness abound all over there!! Thank you Lord for giving me and my family this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience pure, nonjudgemental, hospitality at its finest!!!

May in Maine!!!

What blessings that we receive, and yet in no uncertian terms, do we deserve them. My life long dream is coming true this week. We are going to Maine!!! Words can't describe how excited I am. I am so busy, I just can't believe that I am taking the time today, of all days to update this blog. I have so much to do. UGH!!

We will get to visit my brother and his family. He has children that I have never met and my brother has never met my son. Oh it is going to be a very sweet reunion.