Prize of My Heart

My newest book I received (for free) from Bethany House to review.  This review is my own unbiased, personal opinion.

Prize of my Heart by Lisa Norato

Prize of my Heart is the story of Lorena, a sweet young woman who meets the dashing Brogan Talvis by her father's shipyard one morning.  He's a little flirty and handsome, and instantly Lorena is on her guard.  When she finds out that Brogan is actually the new captain who has been working with her father to get a new ship, Lorena is shocked.  Brogan is equally shocked to find out Lorena is the daughter of the wealthy shipyard owner.  While Brogan's goal is not to start a romance, but to reclaim his long lost son, it's hard to deny the feelings that form between him and the beautiful Lorena.  The story takes a few twists and turns and challenges Brogan to turn to faith in God.

*Sigh* I really wanted to absolutely love this book.  The cover art was beautiful to me, so I had big expectations.  The back of the book sounded just like the kind of Christian fiction that I enjoy.  But I found Prize of My Heart to just be pretty good...not awesome.  Some of the reasons why I didn't love it:

-the characters were a little too flawless....Lorena was beautiful, sweet, full of faith, could bake, was the perfect surrogate mother, etc.  Brogan, while a little more rough around the edges and struggled with his past and faith, was still big, muscular, tan, and handsome.  His flaws weren't really explored and I feel like I missed the part where he was coming into a faith in God.  It was like one minute he was depressed and didn't want anything to do with God and the next all was good. 

-the tension/action in the story fell a little flat.  About mid-way through the book there was a really exciting part.  I was like...yes!  There was danger and deceit and then it was resolved in just a few pages.  It just didn't build up the way it had the potential to.  Then the end of the book had a huge surprise.  It was almost too big for a book ending to me...because it had to be resolved in a short amount of pages.

Overall, this was a good book, but I think it could've been even better.  If you like a nice, Christian fiction novel with likeable characters, this is the book for you.