Love’s Rescue by Christine Johnson

Can a girl enamored with the adventurous seas ever be content with the tame life of a Southern belle?

        When her mother dies, Elizabeth Benjamin heads home to Key West, determined to transform herself into the perfect Southern belle her parents always wished her to be. But nothing goes according to plan. Her brother resents her, the servants do not obey her, and Rourke O’Malley, the dashing man she vowed to forget, refuses to relinquish his hold on her heart. Worst of all, it becomes painfully obvious that her father is not the man he appears to be.

        As family secrets come to light, Elizabeth is faced with a difficult choice: to perform her duty and abandon her dreams, or to leave her life of privilege behind to chase the man her father sees as little better than a pirate.

        Love’s Rescue is the first book in Christine Johnson’s Keys of Promise series, and is also the first book I have ever read by her. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going in, but the description didn’t really pique my interest, so I wasn’t surprised to find that the story didn’t really either. The farther I got into the story, the more shallow and slow it seemed, and I was disappointed to find that even Elizabeth seemed extremely shallow and self-centered at times. Now, don’t get me wrong, it picked up at the end and finished fairly nicely, and I didn’t hate the book, those were just the few things about it that I didn’t really enjoy.

        I hate to comment on the not-so-great qualities of a book, but there is one more thing I have to carry on about for just a second. I was very disappointed to find that one of the story threads that is mentioned in the description doesn’t actually turn out to be much of anything. While it is slightly valid as there are a few pieces of evidence to lead to that conclusion, other than that, there isn’t much of anything. I expected a great shock and a bunch of horrible accusations, but there weren’t many. I know that you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but I had to address my disappointment without spoiling any of the story.

        All in all, I don’t really think there’s any more I could say about this story. It has a sweet premise, and I really wish it had been more engaging, but it simply wasn’t. And I hate that I did, but I skimmed the whole second half of the book. I couldn’t help it. However, I do still believe that this book has potential to engage other readers, I just couldn’t get into it—possibly because of the amazing quality of the books I have been reading lately. Either way, I really can’t give this book any more than three out of five bookshelves, though I wish that I could. I hope that Christine’s next book will be enjoyable for me, so I’m still looking forward to it, but I just can’t help but be honest and say that this one wasn’t.

        Happy reading!

As of yesterday, I’ve updated my rating scale for the books I review. Check out my About Me page to see my detailed description of the changes.

To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Christine Johnson and Revell Publishing.