By Kelly
Bridgewater
Back Cover Copy:
 |
| From Amazon |
For sixty years, a wedding
chapel sat silent, waiting for love. But times have changed and the hour has
come when it just might be too late.
Retired
hall-of-fame football coach Jimmy “Coach” Westbrook never imagined anything
would come of his labor of love—the wedding chapel he built for Collette Greer,
the woman he fell for back in ‘49. But now an offer has come to turn the chapel
into what it was meant to be—a place for love—and Jimmy sees no reason to hang
onto his dream any longer.
Photographer
Taylor Branson is trying to make a life for herself in New York. Leaving her
hometown of Heart’s Bend, Tennessee, she put a lot of things behind her,
including her family’s abysmal marriage rate. But love surprises her when she
falls head-over-heels for Jack Forester, a top ad man. Their whirlwind romance
results in an elopement, and a mountain of doubt. Jack, while genuine in his
love for Taylor, can never seem to overcome his own demons to find the words of
his heart.
When
Taylor takes an assignment in Heart’s Bend, the job does more than send her
back to her hometown, but into a world of family secrets buried beneath the
sands of time.
When Taylor’s journey intersects with Coach’s, they rediscover
the heartbeat of their dreams and that the love they long to hold is right in
front of them. And worth every waiting moment.
My Thoughts:
The Wedding Chapel is a story about sharing secrets
from the past. Like Secrets She Kept
by Cathy Gohlke, Hauck’s latest story reminded me how hidden secrets can
destroy a person because of the festering and boiling before the story. The
Wedding Chapel is an interesting addition to the contemporary romance genre.
First, the
different timelines. Hauck plots the novel featuring events that have occurred
in 1948, 1951, and 1954 mixed in with the present. By doing this, Hauck allows
the readers to watch what actually took place in the past when affects the
present. In similar fashion, Hauck uses different characters that are affected
by these secrets. At the beginning of the novel, I was really confused on what
these four characters had to do with one another. But as the story wore on, I
really got to know and understand each of them.
I really
liked Hauck’s use of description. Even through the numerous time jumps, I felt
the setting. I smelt the crisp fall air and the cold winter as the snow fell on
Jimmy and Collette in the wedding chapel. I knew what the wedding chapel looked
like even though there was no image on the front cover.
Surprisingly,
the character I related to the most was Jack Forester. I believe I related to
him because of hiding his emotions. I do that really well. Don’t believe me,
ask my husband. I grew up in a dysfunctional family where I hid all my emotions
and act like nothing bothered me, but this has affected my married life, and I
keep praying for God to help me overcome this. It is on the top of my prayer
list. Anyways, when Jack figured out that he needed to have God teach him how
to love Taylor, I started to mist up. It struck a deep chord in me.
As for the
conflict, it boils down to secrets. Like I already stated, secrets can harm a
family and hurt a number of future generations, not just the ones doing the
lying. I enjoy watching how the four main characters sought forgiveness and
learned to lean on God and learn to love again.
Fans of
Hauck’s previous book The Wedding Dress
will totally engage themselves in The
Wedding Chapel. I also believe fans of Becky Wade, Becky K. Vogt, Melissa
Tagg, and other writers of contemporary romance will love this book.
Would I
change anything? Maybe draw the connections between the characters earlier in
the book, but other than that, no, I enjoyed it. Not as much as my suspense
books, but it was a good, tug at my heart read.
In
conclusion, Rachel Hauck’s The Wedding
Chapel was an emotional journey that hit me smack down in the chest. I
enjoyed taking the journey of forgiveness with the characters and can’t wait to
see what else Hauck plans to write.
I received a
complimentary copy of The Wedding Chapel
from Zondervan Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Purchase The Wedding Chapel
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