Review: "Love's Refuge" -- All the unpredictable fun of a mainstream novel with the heartwarming enjoyment of a genre romance. 5 Stars!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2014
I don't know what I like best about "Love's Refuge" -was it the pure enjoyment I experienced while reading the book or the satisfaction of reading an intriguing story with surprising mainstream unpredictability and suspense?Trying to place "Love's Rescue" in a given genre is like trying to fit life itself into a genre. While the story opens as a comfy `in a cabin' genre romance, it soon expands into the full scope of a mainstream novel. I found this experience like listening to a fine four piece chamber music ensemble when suddenly the curtains open up to reveal a full orchestra behind the players. When the orchestra joins the music, the story takes on a whole new dimension of meaning and expanded richness.Perhaps few novels have a more apropos title than "Love's Refuge". I felt there were four different abodes of refuge. The first is the island where the heroine has escaped to shelter the trauma of seeing her parents murdered and then being attacked herself. This is a genuine refuge. Next there is the refuge that the hero endeavors to build the heroine in the city so she can ease back into taking a place in the outside world.Then, psychosocially, there is the dual refuge that the hero and heroine provide each other. This refuge is within their hearts. "Love's Refuge" is a psychological novel. The hero and heroine are the right people for each other. A different hero or heroine would not work. Yet there are very real, if not insurmountable,  conflicts -- any one of which could well block a permanent relationship.While the reader (and the characters themselves)  try to understand how this couple could ever manage a relationship, danger stalks the island. What is happening and how dangerous is it?  There are so many things happening at different levels in this novel, that the outcome is open to many possibilities.As a regular romance reader, I kept waiting for a `black moment' to break the couple up near the 80% point in the book. I expected a big fight which would make it look like the pair could never get back together again. Well the page-turning interest was not created by an artificial break-up `black moment'. No. That interest was the result of the suspense that unfolds just as it would in real life.  This is, indeed, very good writing. "Love's Refuge" is a story that held my interest from the first to the last page. It is one of the most entertaining books I've read in years.I must say that I'm the right reader for this book. I loved the characters who seemed to become personal friends by the time the book ended. I also liked the idea that I couldn't predict where the story was going next; better yet, when I tried, I was wrong. I really enjoyed the idea that the story started in a cabin on an island. I love to stay in cabins on islands. I also like flying and landing on islands. I can remember many such visits with fondness.While this story has a Christian component, that element is as essential to the story as you might find in a mainstream novel. The story is not 'preachy' nor was the Christian mentions layered into the story after it was written. The faith element is true to the characters' essential being. In other words, it's natural."Love's Refuge" is a refreshing 5-star love story.It gets my highest recommendation."