Sonia Krogstad’s perfect life collapses when the investment she has been recommending to all her friends and clients turns out to be an elaborate fraud. When she loses her job, her reputation, and her life savings, she accepts a job in her old hometown as a stopgap until she can get her career going again.
Alex Vikhammer has been thrust into the role of solo father after his ex-wife dies and reveals he is the father of her child. When he discovers the Arts Centre – the only activity Karla enjoys – is closing, he buys it. But the charity leaks cash. He needs a fundraiser, and fast, so hires Sonia.
Alex and Karla were very relatable characters.
Karla is the thirteen-year-old girl who has lost her mother, home, and friends and who now lives in a small town with the geeky father she barely knows. Alex is a good father despite his own doubts. He wants the best for his daughter and keeps reaching out to her, even when she’s the stubborn, silent type. All things considered, her reactions were entirely normal.
Sonia was perhaps harder to like.
She only returned to Berghaven because she had to, and while she does her best for the Arts Centre, she does make a couple of decisions I thought were questionable in that they were consistent with her character, but I didn’t think they were the right decisions. It was a strange relief to find they were bad decisions, and they did come back to bite her … and she did eventually realise her errors. While Sonia’s actions were sometimes frustrating, they were also a strength of the novel because they felt realistic in the context.
It’s also refreshing to read a romance featuring older characters.
Both Sonia and Alex are in their mid-forties or thereabouts. Their relationship therefore has a different vibe than it might have had if they were younger. They are both competent professionals, established in their careers (even if Sonia’s has just fallen apart), which is a nice change from romances with younger characters who are still discovering who they are.
The other thing I liked was the setting: Norway.
Reading stories set in other countries and cultures reminds us that people are the same all over the world. We all have similar stresses and worries, and we all like a good Chinese takeaway.
Into the Flood is Christian romance, although the faith elements are relatively low-key. Still, there is an important message about faith – the importance of coming to faith and staying in the faith when times are bad … or good.
Overall, Into the Flood is a strong Christian romance, recommended for those who like older couples or foreign settings (or both), and those wanting to read more fiction with BIPOC characters.
About Milla Holt
I write inspirational romance with an international twist, with stories that uplift and encourage. Heroes with honor and integrity and strong, can-do heroines are my thing. And the good guys always get their happy ending. My fiction reflects my Christian faith.
I’m not a fan of writing about myself, but here goes. I used to be a lot of things: a journalist, a communications manager for a health activist group, and a freelance copywriter.
Before all that, I was a diplomatic brat, trailing along as my mother’s job took us to various diverse locations around the world.
Now, I’m homeschooling my children in the east of England and devoting every spare moment to writing.
Find Milla Holt online at:
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About Into the Flood
She took this small-town job as a temporary last resort. Falling for her reserved boss was not part of the plan.
Reclusive tech genius Axel Vikhammer bought a non-profit community arts center that’s fast becoming a money pit. Closing it down is not an option, especially since it’s a refuge for the teenage daughter he only recently learned he has. With her PR background, Sonia seems the perfect hire for the job as his center’s fundraising manager.
Yet as feelings develop between the two, Axel wonders how he can trust Sonia with his business—or his heart—when her dreams don’t include his small town or him.
With her head and her heart pulling her in different directions, Sonia needs to take a leap of faith. But every time she’s done that in the past, she’s fallen flat on her face. Why should it be different now?
Rachel McMillan is the author of the Herringford and Watts mysteries, the Three Quarter Time series of contemporary romances set in opulent Vienna, and the Van Buren and DeLuca mysteries praised for bringing an authentic 1930’s Boston world to life while normalizing the fictional conversation surrounding mental illness. She is also the author of Dream, Plan and Go: A Romantic’s Guide to Independent Travel and A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide: which explores her love of made-for-TV Christmas movies. Her upcoming historical romances The London Restoration and The Mozart Code (Harper Collins) take readers deep into an atmospheric look of post-war London, Vienna and Prague. Rachel lives in Toronto, Canada.
