I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by Tyndale House Publishers. I was not compensated for this review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.
Just Let Go by Courtney Walsh Series: Harbor Pointe #2
Published by NavPress on June 5, 2018
Genres: Christian, Clean & Wholesome, Contemporary, Fiction, Romance
Pages: 416
Source: Tyndale House Publishers
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For Quinn Collins, buying the flower shop in downtown Harbor Pointe fulfills a childhood dream, but also gives her the chance to stick it to her mom, who owned the store before skipping town twenty years ago and never looking back. Completing much-needed renovations, however, while also competing for a prestigious flower competition with her mother as the head judge, soon has Quinn in over her head. Not that she’d ever ask for help.
Luckily, she may not need to. Quinn’s father and his meddling friends find the perfect solution in notorious Olympic skier Grady Benson, who had only planned on passing through the old-fashioned lakeside town. But when a heated confrontation leads to property damage, helping Quinn as a community-service sentence seems like the quickest way out—and the best way to avoid more negative press.
Quinn finds Grady reckless and entitled; he thinks she’s uptight and too regimented. Yet as the two begin to hammer and saw, Quinn sees glimpses of the vulnerability behind the bravado, and Grady learns from her passion and determination, qualities he seems to have lost along the way. But when a well-intentioned omission has devastating consequences, Grady finds himself cast out of town—and Quinn’s life—possibly forever. Forced to face the hurt holding her back, Quinn must finally let go or risk missing out on the adventure of a lifetime.
Includes discussion questions.
This is my second Courtney Walsh book and I’ve yet to not fall in love with her writing, her characters, and I’m still in love with Harbor Pointe. This time we meet Quinn, daughter of the sheriff and a runaway florist. Steadfast, goal driven, with little use for risk taking she’s the new owner of the local floral shop; bringing back into the family. With one goal in mind, winning the state floral competition and gaining the attention of her mother who disappeared 20 years ago. We also meet Grady, Olympic skier and current world champion in Alpine skiing. Hotheaded, very driven, and with quite a chip on his shoulder and a recent string of failures that has the world doubting him. A fight in the local diner brings them together but they both have to let go of their own past hurts in order to see a future, with or without each other.
‘When will you ever stop seeing everyone through that lens, Quinn?’
‘What lens?’ She could feel herself bristling.
Carly turned toward her. ‘That lens of brokenness.’
Go Carly (that would be Quinn’s sister by the way)! Quinn, like so many of us, has stagnated her life in that moment she can’t control, can’t understand, and wants to take back so desperately that she’s built her life around it. The moment her mom was gone. Grady had a similar situation. His entire skiing career was built on a moment he can’t take back, a moment that changed his life (and the life of his family) forever. We all have that one (or sometimes multiple) life defining moment that shades the way we view the world from that moment forward. Our own personal lens of brokenness. I read this book last week when I was home on Jammication. I had full intentions of doing so many things. All the things, if you will. I didn’t do many of the things. I spent the week beginning to finally try to come to turns with my own standstill moment. (I’ll post about that separately in the coming weeks.) I did a lot of reading (something I’d fallen away from in my brokenness). I did a lot of Netflixing. I did a lot of thinking and writing and crying and living. As Jammication is coming to an end as I write this I had to take a moment and just let it go. A tiny bit. Not all of it. I’ve not completed this particular journey. There’s more to do to get to that. I’m not hanging out in a book after all where it has to be figured out in 300ish (give or take) pages.
‘Grady was used to doing things a certain way. I felt like shaking that up a little might knock some sense into his head. We only fond out what we’re really made of when our backs are up against the wall, you know.’
She looked away.
‘Sometimes our biggest setbacks turn out to be our greatest blessings.’ Judge gave her shoulder a slight squeeze.
I’m not here yet, but perhaps you are. It’s like the rainbow after a storm. That moment when you realize that the crack on your lens is becoming invisible, it was repaired with care. You would think, reading this review, that all I took away from this book was a focus on past hurts, personal drama, and brokenness. Perhaps a moment of healing or two. That’s not it though. I took away from this book memorable people that I would love to visit in a fictional town that I would move to if it were in a more temperate climate. I found that sometimes the idea opposites attract is true because sometimes the things that make someone an obvious opposite is really based in the same reality. Just a different way to express it. Hurt. Fear. Self-doubt. Even love. I realized that good things can sometimes bloom from scars. And I realized that I definitely need to read more Courtney Walsh.
About Courtney Walsh
When I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend. Her name was Kellen and she had auburn hair and freckles. She wore a patchwork brown dress and brown Mary Janes.
Come to think of it, she was very brown, but she went with me everywhere.
I suppose it’s unacceptable to have imaginary friends once one becomes an adult. That’s why I decided to become a writer. To give myself creative license to dream up all kinds of imaginary friends…and then, to tell their stories.
I’ve always been a person with a pure love for creating characters and bringing them to life. In high school and college, I turned to the stage. Later, it was scrapbooking. Now, it’s fiction. Funny how it all comes together, no?
See, I believe we all have a story to tell. We all have stories that make us laugh or shed a tear. We may even have that one that stops the heart. And I suppose that’s why I write…to capture those stories. To give them a place to breathe. To remember how it is that I got here in the first place.
I learn so much more when I’m paying attention.
Thanks for the review!