Hello, my lovely readers, and welcome to this month’s book review and giveaway!  To read more about my book review approach and giveaways, please click here.

My book for June is “This Fine Life”, by Eva Marie Everson…

(ISBN 080073274X, Revell Publishing House, May 1st, 2010)

The book tells the story of 18 year old Mariette Putnam, living in 1959 Georgia.  According to her, however, “This is not the story of my life.  This is the story of my husband’s life, or at the very least how the story of his life affected mine and all those he touched just by his being near them or with them.”  The major theme of this story is self-discovery guided by love, patience, and forgiveness.

Mariette has just returned home from boarding school.  She has loving parents and 2 younger brothers but, at 18, she’s at loose ends.  Her father is pushing for college and a career in management, while her mother is encouraging her to find a husband with the right social connections and career pathway.  Mariette has managed to convince her parents to give her the summer to find out what she wants.  She can’t see herself going for more schooling, but she isn’t ready to turn into her mother, either.  Enter Thayne Scott.

Thayne is the mail-boy in her father’s apparel factory, although “boy” isn’t exactly accurate.  He’s a 20-something college dropout who’s working on a fresh start, and he’s unlike anyone Mariette has ever met.  You can guess what happens from here – they fall in love and, despite two very different backgrounds, make the decision to go against Mariette’s parents and elope.

The story unfolds from here, following the newlywed couple through arguments, forgiveness, misunderstandings, heartache, and healing.  Through Thayne’s decision to become a pastor, through the humbling experience of having to move in with her parents in order to cut expenses, through the frustrations that occur when one spouse believes in God when the other doesn’t know what to think, and through the loss and death of loved ones.  Can a marriage survive all of this?

The book is well-written and draws you right from the start.  The marriage is a believable, realistic one with an emphasis on the wife’s character, but not necessarily at the expense of understanding the husband.  The side-players are involved in a way that makes sense, and no one mysteriously appears or disappears from the storyline – each character has a purpose.  She does a good job of covering a lot of years without allowing the plot to become stagnant.

I enjoyed this book, right from the illustration on the cover till the very end.  It made me laugh, cry, and tugged at my heart-strings.  Mariette was a character that I could relate to, and I think that any woman, particularly those who are married, have been married, or have ever been in a relationship, will feel the same.

I’m excited that I get to share this book with one of you!  If you’d like to be in the drawing, please leave me a comment telling me your favorite book genre.  If you’d like a second entry, then mention this review in a post with a link-back, and let me know in a separate comment.  The giveaway is open to all US and New Zealand readers and will end June 2oth at midnight in New Zealand {which would be Sunday, June 20th at 8am EST in the US}.  The winner will be announced the following day.  My only request is that once the winner reads the book, they let me know what they thought of it 🙂  Good luck!