His to Love by Z. Peabody

There is redemption in this long novella, but I feel the redemption has already happened to the two main characters as they are both Christians. The story is a romance. I’m not sure the sub-genre, (and there are no categories listed on Amazon) but those of you more familiar may recognize it. Anyway, we might vaguely say both Sophia and Griffin are redeemed when they finally come together.

As stated, this is a romance, so not really the type of story I usually read, but since the author is part of our Brave Author’s group, and this is coming out in January, it’s the one I was given to read. As such, I’m not overly familiar with the tropes of this genre.

It’s a continuation of a series called Masters of the Cavern, which are faith-based novellas. As far as I can tell, The Cavern is a group of wealthy Christians operating a ministry. The traditions of this certain group are along the lines of aristocracy. They call each other Lord and Lady. And at least one pair, Sophia and her brother Forrest, are royalty as their father is a Scottish Duke. Griffin is a cop. I’ll leave it to the reader to discover how he fits in with this ministry.

I believe the story line is typical romance, so I won’t summarize any of the plot. The story is written in first-person from two points of view: Sophia’s and Griffin’s. And it’s present tense. I’m not sure if this is common these days in Romance, but rarely do I come across this in other genres. The present tense was done well enough not to be distracting, but it also added nothing to the story. In general, I only see present tense as adding to a story in high-intensity thrillers. And once I got into the story the two first person points of view also did not distract.

The opening situations are interesting and perplexing. But they become clearer later one. Peabody has put together a fascinating set of characters. Not ones I relate to but still fun watching from the outside. Some of the Scottish setting and traditions were intriguing. I did find the Scottish brogue distracting. Not sure what advice I’d give, but maybe establish the brogue for Sophia and Forrest early, and then drop it.

I appreciated the strong Christian messages given in this story. I found it fascinating that Sophia at her age (late twenties to early thirties, I’d guess) was a virgin and completely unfamiliar with dating. I also found it refreshing. The struggle to stay pure is well-portrayed in both characters. And being a Christian novel, it’s clean. No profanity and no sex. And since it’s a romance, there’s no violence either. Just a mild car crash.

If you’re a romance fan, check this out and the other novellas in the series.

Like the previous novella I read, I’m going to leave this out of my rankings due to the genre.

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