Love Arrives in Pieces

Thank you Zondervan for the opp. to review this book. I was unable to read ahead of time.

This was a sweet, fun summer read. I was able to predict some of what would happen and I did find the main female character to be a bit hardheaded at times, but it didn't matter, I still really liked the storyline. This isn't a book I'd read for substance, but rather for pure enjoyment. This is a Christian book, but not heavy on preaching at all, I think anyone would like it.

When a book begins with the phrase “Fairy tales lied”, I sit up and pay attention. Perfect hook to start out a love story for this fairy-tale junkie. It immediately gave me a sense of both Stella’s snark and her pain, and the witty prose that followed endeared me both to Stella and to the author. Poor Stella – still broken from her divorce, a shell of her former self, facing potential eviction if she doesn’t find an interior design job soon. Then she’d be forced to move in with her tough-to-take parents where “she’d be scrubbing her mother’s kitchen floors without a single mouse or bird to help. Some princesses had all the luck.”

Oh, indeed.

I thoroughly enjoyed Betsy St. Amant’s delightful writing voice – witty, sassy, and sweet. It was easy to “hear” the narration in my mind as I read the story, a detail which kept the pace steady and engaging. The chemistry between Chase and Stella lingered over each scene they shared – and sometimes even when they were separate – and I just wanted to fix the ache in each of their hearts so they could find some healing. And Dixie!! Oh Dixie! One of my favorite secondary characters ever, I think! I adore how she pops in and out of the scenes, taking charge for the moment in her own quirky and eccentric way before she abruptly heads off to find someone else’s scene to invade. She always put a grin on my face when she made an appearance.

(And I have some major cover love going on for this book! The way the title art very subtly fits into one of the themes and subplots of the book is ingenious! The more I look at it, the more I see.)

Chase and Stella have each been through a lot and their emotions are understandably on edge. However, I did feel that some of their reactions – to each other and to circumstances (the secret art room, the hair trigger tempers) – were a bit extreme. That said, I haven’t walked in either of their shoes and I can’t say how I would react if I had.

The message of Love Arrives in Pieces hit all the right notes with me – it’s okay to be broken and it’s okay to heal. And sometimes… many times … that healing creates a beautiful piece of art in our lives out of that brokenness. While everybody else (including us) just sees a pile of broken shards of what used to be, God looks at our life and sees the masterpiece that He is creating.

“Brokenness is a method.”

Not one of our favorite methods, perhaps. But one that yields some of the most exquisite results.

Bottom Line: A witty but poignant read that will give you a new perspective on brokenness, Love Arrives in Pieces is very much worth your investment. While this is a sequel to All’s Fair in Love and Cupcakes and some of the characters from the first book figure prominently into this story line, you can certainly read Love Arrives in Pieces as a stand alone. I myself have not yet read the first book and did not feel lost – just that I was missing out on the story that happened without me lol. (I shall correct that by reading All’s Fair at my earliest opportunity!) I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Becky Wade or Katie Ganshert or contemporary romance in any form.

A story about beauty in brokenness with honest message!

Former beauty queen Stella is facing her post-divorce suffering with self-esteem, she feels unworthy and broken. Believing it is her beauty what gets her into a marriage with cheater and afraid there is not much more about her but beauty, she tries to stay invisible and bland, feeling more safe as a viewer more viewer than a main performer of her life. But when she lands her first important job as an interior designer of an old theater, she sees hope to be known for her talent...until realizing that she is to co-work with her former flame Chase - more known as her sister´s boyfriend, hiting on Stella while dating Kat. But how it is possible to feel so understood and visible when with him? Chase is back to his hometown after experiencing a heartbreak of his own. After his fiancée´s sudden death, he wish to live life at his fullest, not to have any regrets. This is in direct contrary of how Stella lives her life and he feels the need to protect her, to fight her, to awaken her, to be with her again. But can Stella trust him (again)? And, more importantly, can Stella believe in herself?

A lovely study of how to learn to trust again, to believe that the healing is possible and to surrender to the God´s healing hand. I understand that the authoress herself went through the painful experience of divorce and I truly appreciate her honesty in sharing the suffering. The Stella´s pain felt real because Betsy St. Amant knows what she is reading about. Thank you for that, Betsy! I hope your frank message will help me to understand the divorced people around me better.

As for the romance - well. I just didn´t feel it. I am sorry, but I dislike Chase. To me he never felt truly sorry for his messing with lives of two sisters (he never truly apologized to Kat, for that matter!), and he got off the hook quite lightly. Chase and Stella´s mutual understanding was too miraculous for me as well. After the months of pain they just clicked too quickly. I liked Stella better, but I find her a bit lacking in knowing her own responsibilities. She was the one cheating with her sister´s boyfriend as well as Chase did with her, but all the blame was just on Chase. She didn´t own her mistakes. I find this being a lacking element in her way to healing.

Having said that, I appreciate the true love story the book offers, the love story with The One who can see the beauty within us broken. It is a powerful message.