When it comes to romance I’d much rather be a participant than a spectator. I have been dating the same guy now for 6 years and I still see the romance in the little things he does – buying my favorite shampoo without me having to ask, finding a new type of crystal light to try (I gave up soda a year ago) and of course taking me out to see my favorite bands or a movie I wanted to see.
Because of this I’ve never been much of a fan for romance novels. When my mother suggested I read this book by Deborah Vogts called Snow Melts in Spring, I thought I would struggle through it and then write a mediocre review for my blog to prove to her I’d actually made it through. In fact, the book sat on my shelves for almost 6 months before I even decided to open it up and get started. As it turns out, I’m glad I did.
Snow Melts in Spring by Deborah Vogts is a Christian romance novel. There are no dirty scenes or language that would make me blush making it easy for me to read it wherever I was. And it turns out this was a good thing because I couldn’t put it down. Where most books take me a month to read, I read this one in a week flat. It was a fantastic story and my review is below.
The story centers around three main characters. Mattie is a small ranching town vet in Kansas who is struggling to make it in a predominantly male occupation. Over the course of the book she loses patients, her practice and home burn down and her sister threatens to take away months of progress she’s made personally and professionally. John is the owner of the Lightening M Ranch who is getting older and feeling the strain of maintaining his oversized property with no family to help and his health declining. John’s only surviving son is Gil, a retired quarterback for the 49ers, who is looking to start a new life ranching in the California hills.
When Gil’s horse, living at John’s ranch in Kansas, is hit by a drunk driver, John calls Mattie to handle the care and rehabilitation of the animal. He also calls Gil to inform him of the accident so he can come home and spend time with the animal in case he doesn’t make it. Mattie tries to keep a professional relationship with the two McCray men, but a fire has her moving to the Lightening M as temporary shelter and her long-time friendship with John and budding relationship with Gil has her in over her head.
Like most romance novels, with the exception of every Nicholas Sparks book I’ve ever read, the story ends happily and readers shouldn’t be surprised by the outcome.
This novel is peppered with moral dilemmas and biblical lessons including forgiveness, honesty, honoring your parents and withstanding temptation. While Deborah doesn’t hide the Christian undertones to her story, she doesn’t make them awkward moments either. Each time one of the believers in the story is faced with a dilemma they meditate on scripture they are familiar with to help them through, but it’s more natural than other Christian novels I read where it was almost like we took a break from the story in order to throw a scripture in. In this book I could see myself doing the same thing, meditating on the same scriptures, if I was facing the troubles these people were facing.
My one complaint? The only ones who seemed to read or study the Bible outside of church were the non-believers in the story. I wished that the characters had at least been more involved in their church activities within the story. There may have been room to put it in. Overall I’d give this story a 4 of 5 stars and would encourage anyone looking for a great, conservative story to read to check this one out. It’s not just for those romantics.
Have you ever read a novel in a genre you typically don’t care for and was surprised by how good the story was?
