Book Review: Smitten by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, & Diann Hunt

Smitten,Vermont is a struggling community when the town's largest employer, Smitten Lumber, closes up. Four friends get together and decide to turn Smitten, Vermont into a romantic getaway and honeymoon destination by capitalizing on the town's name. Natalie, Julia, Shelby and Reese are all good friends who love their community and want to see it thrive. The faith of a young girl also helps the 4 friends, as well as others in the town, see what faith in God can do. As all four friends work together to help the town grow again, each of them finds their own true love as well as increasing their faith in God.

The four stories of Natalie, Julia, Shelby and Reese are all wound together to create one unified story. Each story is written by one 4 real-life friends and popular Christian fiction authors: Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, & Diann Hunt. As I read the book, I thought the stories all flowed seamlessly from one to the other. It was a light, relaxing read and the love stories are somewhat predictable. Sometimes in this hectic life, that is just the prescription I need to help myself de-stress so I recommend it for that reason. I also enjoyed reading the conversation over coffee between the authors at the end. For me personally, I also liked the aspect of this book that one of the main characters could not eat gluten. I have a similar struggle as I am allergic to wheat so I often eat gluten-free products. At the very end, some yummy-looking gluten-free recipes are included and I am anxious to try those. Food allergies and gluten intolerance are problems for many people today so it was fun for me to see this woven into the story. Finally, I also like that another Smitten, Vermont book will be out in December 2012 so the story will continue.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson as part of the Booksneeze program. I was not required to write a positive review.