Never the Bride

Sometimes I read a book and it touches me in such a way that I will probably never be the same. It may be fiction or non-fiction. It may be short or long. It may take weeks to get through it, or it may only take hours.

Let me tell you about a medium length, read-it-in-less-than-twelve-hours-while-also-painting-a-dining-room-and-dining-out-with-my-husband-stay-up-past-midnight (can't put it down even when it should be put down), fiction kind of book.

Jessie Stone has spent thirty-five years fantasizing about marriage proposals, wedding dresses, and falling in love. She’s been a bridesmaid eleven times, waved dozens of couples off to sunny honeymoons, and shopped in more department stores for half-price fondue pots than she cares to remember.

But shopping in the love-of-her-life department hasn't been quite as productive. The man she thought she would marry cheated on her. The crush she has on her best friend Blake is at very best…well, crushing. And speed dating has only churned out memorable horror stories.

So when God shows up one day, in the flesh, and becomes a walking, talking part of her life, Jessie is skeptical. What will it take to convince her that God has a better love story than one of the thousands she’s cooked up in her journals? Will she trust Him with her pen when it appears her dreams of being the bride are forever lost?

A romantic comedy with a spiritual twist, Never the Bride is what it means to lose control—and getting more than any woman could ever imagine.

Now as most of you know, I've been (mostly) happily married for better than 13 years, so it isn't as if you need to be a single chick to enjoy this book. (You do, probably, have to be a chick, however.) And I don't really have much of a tough time surrendering my "love story" to God, considering I have no other hope of making it though this life if I don't. But surrendering in other areas? Hoo-boy.

So God, dressed as an everyday Joe sitting in the car next to me, or holding the paint can while watching me paint my dining room and listening to the 80s sappy music on KUDL, or listening with a smirk while I'm complaining to a friend on the phone about a frustrating situation...it has popped into my mind a time or twelve.

If you just like a good story, you'll find it. If you have just a tad bit of a problem surrendering control? You might be changed.

I've never heard of Cheryl McKay, but the novelization of her screenplay that Rene Gutteridge did is absolutely stunning and Gutteridge funny to boot.

Check it out!