It’s an excellent small-town contemporary Christian romance series that sprung out of the realisation that while Easter is central to our Christian faith, there are very few stories set around Easter. The stories are set in the fictional college town of Gilead, Kansas, and centre on the town’s annual Passion Play production. It’s a fun American take on the famous Oberammergau tradition, but with some serious aspects to the stories.
While the books are probably designed to be read in order, I didn’t read them in order and didn’t feel I’d missed anything.
But I was so engaged with the town and the characters that I ended up reading all three books in a week!
Letty is a recurring character across the series. She runs the Heavenly Brew coffee shop, where she also sells a range of home-made pastry goods. She manages the food concession at the passion play, which includes providing snacks and drinks during rehearsals. Dawson Bauer has just started work at Gilead Bible College as the head of the AV department, and finds himself—unwittingly and unwillingly—required to manage the sound for the Passion Play, from the auditions through all the rehearsals, and the production. He is not happy, because he does not like Easter
Dawson meets Letty on the first night of auditions. There’s something familiar about her, but he can’t figure out what. He asks his mother, which ends up being the exact wrong thing to do because it means Letty’s past catches up with her …
I loved the setup of each character, and the way they came together. I loved the writing (there were so many quotable lines). I loved theI loved the integration between the three books–the way the characters (especially Letty) showed up in each book in an entirely natural way. I also loved the “wise older men” who ran across the series—Larry, Mr W, and Phillip.
I especially loved the “coincidences” that had each of the characters in the right place at the right time.
If you like contemporary Christian romance, especially small-town romance where everyone knows everyone else’s business, you’ll enjoy His Runaway Crush and the rest of the Easter in Gilead series as much as I have.
Now I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Her Cowboy Blind Date by Narelle Atkins.
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About His Runaway Crush
Can once upon a time turn into happily ever after?
Letty Stanton might live in Gilead, but Heavenly Brew is her home. After all, home is where the heart is. Letty has spent a decade running from a past she never wanted to face and keeping at arms’ length all the people who hold her close to their hearts. When a handsome stranger blows into town, though, he upsets the calm and comfortable life she’s worked so hard to cultivate.
Dawson Bauer is new to small-town life. From the four-year-old who couldn’t whisper if her life depended on it to the middle-aged man who only speaks in grunts and glares, Gilead is filled with quirky people who think privacy is a mythical creature. Not to mention that everybody is obsessed with Easter, and he’d be happy to never hear that word again. Then there’s the enigmatic woman who runs the town’s coffee shop. There’s something about her…
What happens when a guy who mostly means well and a girl with mile-high walls collide? Sparks fly, secrets come to light, and everybody in Gilead has an opinion.
Find His Runaway Crush online at:
Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads
