The Best Gift

A friend sent me this in a box of books. I've read Irene Hannon before and usually enjoy her books. I'm glad to say that this one did not disappoint.

The story opens with three women hearing the terms of their aunt's will. (I suspect this opening is the same in all 3 books of the series.)

This book centers on A.J. Her bequeath is half interest in a St. Louis bookstore as long as she works there (with the man who was her aunt's business partner) for 6 months.

A.J. had a pretty conventional life growing up until a tragedy took away the man she'd planned to spend the rest of her life with. Since then, she's resisted putting down roots and told herself it was so she could be open to wherever God's leading took her.

Blake had a nomadic show more lifestyle growing up and learned early on to depend only on himself. He prefers stability.

I think they both approached their business partnership and their budding relationship in a realistic manner. Yes, they both made some assumptions about the other, but they also weren't afraid to talk about what they thought or what bothered them. As A.J. said--knowing that Blake was going to question her about any changes she might want to make made her think through them more thoroughly than she might otherwise have.

Though the terms of the aunt's will seem odd at first, I have a feeling the aunt very carefully considered her nieces and the people/situations she knew and chose these deliberately--of course, knowing that the outcome wasn't guaranteed (but since this is fiction, we know what will happen), but at the very least hopeful that her nieces would learn life lessons from the process if nothing else show less