At least once a month, I will try to post a book review. Sometimes it will be a book I read years ago, other times I will have just turned the last page and feel like writing a review.
My reviews will always be about a book I rated with either 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads and/or BookBub and/or Amazon. There are soooo many books available for readers to choose from—and to choose to buy—that I want to save you readers both selection time and hard-earned money. I want to give you “the best bang for your buck.” So, even though there are some 3-star books that are still “good,” I’ll only post reviews about the “better” and “best” books I’ve read.
Goodreads’ Rating System: Amazon’s Rating system: BookBub’s Rating System:
3 stars = I liked it 3 stars = It’s okay 3 stars = Okay
4 stars = I really liked it 4 stars = I like it 4 stars = Good
5 stars = It was amazing 5 stars = I love it 5 stars = Excellent
**** 4 Stars ****
Book Summary
The only thing Bri Duval loves more than baking petit fours is romance. So much so, she’s created her own version of the famous Parisian lovelock wall at her bakery in Story, Kansas. She never expects it to go viral–or for Trek Magazine to send travel writer Gerard Fortier to feature the bakery. He’s definitely handsome, but Bri has been holding out for a love story like the one her parents had, and that certainly will not include the love-scorned-and-therefore-love-scorning Gerard.
Just when it seems Bri’s bakery is poised for unprecedented success, a series of events threaten not just her business but the pedestal she’s kept her parents on all these years. Maybe Gerard is right about romance. Or maybe Bri’s recipe just needs to be tweaked.
Novelist Betsy St. Amant invites you to experience this sweet story of how love doesn’t always look the way we expect–and maybe that’s a good thing.
My Thoughts
In the Christian contemporary romance, The Key to Love, author Betsy St. Amant has crafted a charming love story that is full of several scenes of differing emotions that create an overall very satisfying read.
There are sugary sweet scenes that make you say “Awh” out loud; there are cute scenes that make you giggle; there are sad scenes that make you want to be able to give the characters a hug; there are irritating scenes that make you shake your head at the “bad” guy or poor choices a character makes; and there are thought-provoking scenes that make you nod your head in agreement when characters comes to realize important discoveries about themselves, others, and what or who is really important in life and love.
This love story is of the opposites attract variety, and author St. Amant creates witty and tense dialogue that makes it fun and interesting for the reader to watch the hero and heroine go at each other through most of the book, and then watch as the couple comes to the realization at the end that they just might be a great pairing after all.
Although I liked the main character a lot, I’ll admit I think I liked the secondary characters Mable and Agnes best. These super adorable “lil ol’ ladies” were like great-aunts to the heroine Bri, who lost her parents as a teen, and they were the co-owners of the Pastry Puff bakery. The author’s description of these two, and the dialogue St. Amant used for them, made it so easy to envision them in my mind, and to love them and their little matchmaking schemes.
The Key to Love was the first novel I’ve read by Betsy St. Amant, but it certainly won’t be the last!
