All That It Takes by Nicole Deese

 

When the ever-cautious Val Locklier finally agrees to a cross-country move with her nine-year-old son to take a job with her best friend, Molly, everything she had planned for the future unravels within the first week. After pushing aside her anxieties about renting an apartment from Molly's twin brother, whom she barely knows, she accepts an invitation for an elite filmmaker's mentorship. Caught between her insecurities and new possibilities, she feels completely unprepared for the challenges ahead.

Pastor Miles McKenzie returns home from abroad to discover that not only does he have an intriguing new tenant living upstairs, he's been banished to a ministry on life support. Disillusioned and restless, he pursues a relationship with Val without stopping to consider the timing or asking God to direct his steps.

As Val struggles to stop hiding behind the camera and Miles wrestles with shattered expectations, they'll find that authentic love and sacrifice must go hand in hand.

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Author Nicole Deese has once again written a story filled with emotion and love in so many forms.  No matter if I've experienced exactly what these characters have experienced or not, I still feel those emotions and then connect to them.  That is a really good feeling as a reader.

Val and Miles know sacrifice but in different ways.  They know about hard things and they both have insecurities.  Their relationship goes from acquaintances to friendship to romance in a natural feeling way.  It was easy to believe and easy to settle in with.  Val and Miles are both so easy to like.  I enjoyed the side characters, especially Val's son.  He was a fun addition, bringing light and joy to all the scenes he was in.  The message of reaching out and helping even just one person, to change their trajectory from lonely, sad and even desperate, to one of love, acceptance and peace is a good reminder today (and every day).  We all can be a little more aware of others and a little kinder to them.

I love the cover of this book- it feels just like the story I just read.  Plus, blue is my favorite color.  💙

This book is Christian Fiction and as Miles is a pastor, there is a heavy base of God and Christian themes.

Content:  kissing

- I received a complimentary copy of this book.  All opinions expressed are my own.