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This one has been on my shelf for a while and since I had just read about historical California I pulled this one down and read it again. I appreciated the way the author tactfully handled the difference between two pastors and how people were believing that if they were good enough they would go to heaven according to the first pastor they knew, but the second was very clear about a relationship with Christ. Throughout the book, people who had been in church all their lives came face to face with the realization that they didn't know God at all. I like the author's historical accuracy, well-written relationship issues, and on point scriptural guidance. ( )

This book. I just didnt like it that much! I loved the character of Jeff in the first book, but she totally ruined him in this one. He felt like a completely different character! I also wasn't really a huge fan of Bobbie. On a side note, what's with Wick's affinity for masculine nicknames for female characters?

All in all, I didn't really care for this book. I appreciated the fact that it was less romancey than the rest of the series, but the story just didn't cut it. ( )

Boys will be boys, perhaps, but the way Jeffrey Taylor once hurt Roberta "Bobbie" Bradford's feelings was still inexcusable. Now that Bobbie is returning to Santa Rosa after a five-year absence, Jeff will finally have the chance to make it up to her in person. But her arrival back home throws Jeff strangely off-kilter in As Time Goes By by author Lori Wick.

Here's another novel I've now read thrice, which I think I first read in my teens.

I once loved this second book in The Californians series for various reasons, including that the heroine is considered to be rather plain. Bobbie also wears spectacles, and no, when she comes back to town, she's not an ugly-duckling-turned-beautiful-swan who's done away with her glasses to conveniently make her gorgeous. Not that romances have to make a big to-do about a heroine's physical looks either way (they most certainly do not), but it's still refreshing to see something different from this author's norm.

"Plain girls have dreams too, you know." Bobbie is competent and personable with a cheeky sense of humor, and she's regularly ready to cut folks some slack.

Even with the super cool heroine, though, I'll admit I don't feel the same about the story as I used to. It's often pretty schmaltzy and not the most natural. Having jumped straight to the second book in the series this time, I can see how certain minor characters and scenes don't really matter unless you already care about those characters from the previous book. Also, this novel has a lot of talk about salvation, prayer, and Bible reading, which I think can work if a novel's plot calls for it, but it feels overdone in this story.

Nevertheless, this is a feel-good kind of read for fans of ChristFic historical romance who can appreciate something that's easy to digest. ( )

After a humiliating betrayal, can friendship be restored?