Books for Christian Girls: "Sweet Cranberries" by Sherry Kyle

About this book:

  “A heartwarming story about accepting others, celebrating community, and the rush of falling in love in autumn.
    Amanda Richards moves to the island of Nantucket to take over the Blue Crab Café that her aunt and uncle have successfully run for forty years. Hoping to prove her worth to a somewhat skeptical community, she volunteers to organize the annual Cranberry Festival at the Milestone Cranberry Bog. When a handsome electrician and other residents of the island step up to help with the festival, she must discern whether they really have her best interests at heart.
    Tyler Adams, owner of Adams Electric, is having a hard time accepting the news that the Blue Crab Café has been sold and the former owner is moving away—a man who’s been a father figure to Tyler since his dad’s death two years ago. When Amanda, the new owner, steps up to head up the Cranberry Festival planning committee, he volunteers to help her and quickly falls for the newest member of the community. The only thing he hadn’t planned on was his ex-fiancée returning to town with her sights set on winning him back.”

Series: Book #2 in the “Love in Every Season” series, but seems to not be connected to any other book.

Spiritual Content- Proverbs 27:17 at the dedication; Prayers; ’H’s are not capital when referring to God; Amanda feels as if an “unseen force” is prompting her to do something; Mentions of God & Him being our Father; Mentions of prayers, praying, blessings over food, & thanking God; A couple mentions of God-given talents; A couple mentions of a divine appointment; A mention of a Bible study;
             *Note: ‘For heaven’s sakes’ is said once; A mention of a house being like Heaven.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘shoot’ and a ‘shut up’; Some sarcasm & eye rolling; Tyler says a white lie and thinks that he will ask God for forgiveness about it later; Mentions of the death of Tyler’s dad (heart attack), grief, & how hard it was on him and his mom; Mentions of rumors & gossip; A couple mentions of a wife leaving her husband and infant son; A couple mentions of a son walking out of his dad’s life; A couple mentions of a manipulative person; A mention of spiking a drink;
             *Note: Mentions of a canceled wedding (due to the man making a big decision without the input of his soon-to-be wife; Amanda suggests they try premarital counseling or therapy; *Spoiler* They apparently talk things through, and the wedding is back on by the end of the book *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of brand names (KitchenAid & Converse shoes); A couple mentions of Girl Scouts; A mention of YouTube.

Sexual Content- a cheek kiss and two semi-detailed kisses, Touches, Embraces, Nearness, & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to touch & hold hands (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Shortly after meeting, Tyler asks Amanda out on a date in hopes of becoming more just than friends, but Amanda asks him if it has to do with his ex-fiancée coming back to town (he admits it does, but does like Amanda; Amanda would prefer to date him after he’s moved on from his ex, but he thinks he has); Because of a storm, Amanda has to stay the night at Tyler’s and they both sleep in the living room (her on the couch and him on the floor; They try to keep others from finding out she stayed the night at his place as they don’t want rumors to start); Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of dates, dating, boyfriends/girlfriends, break-ups, & broken hearts; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of cute girls & handsome guys; A few mentions of attraction; A couple mentions of flirting; A mention of men-crazy women; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
             *Note: Amanda has always been close to her mom, but her mom has recently started to make comments to Amanda about getting married soon and “hounding” her about it (which bothers Amanda as she’s not in a hurry to get married, thinks that “you’d think it was Mom’s biological clock it was ticking”, and raises her voice towards her mom a couple of times; *Spoiler* About half-way, she realizes that it’s because her mom cares about her and feels “well-deserved guilt” and looks at her mom with “a new warmth”; At the end, her mom apologies for putting pressure on her and says she wants Amanda to be happy “with or without a man” *End of Spoiler*).

-Amanda Richards, age 30
-Tyler Adams
                                P.O.V. switches between them
                                                        150 pages

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

Very cheesy Hallmark-ish plot, but had it’s cute parts. It’s a speed run of a plot but it was a bite-sized story being a novella of only 150 pages anyway, so that’s to be expected. As an organization lover, I did really like the parts of Amanda organizing the cranberry festival. ;)

I didn’t quite believe they were in their thirties, but I was impressed that the main characters were pretty open with the other and communicated decently well for a contemporary romance book. They definitely had their moments of stupid choices and some drama there towards the end, but it all worked out. The faith content was very light and so was the romance elements in the touchy-feely-noticing category, which I appreciated latter for sure. Overall, it was pretty cute and a good short, fall-themed read!

See y’all on Monday with a new review!