Samantha Rose designs websites for mommy bloggers. When her archeologist sister gets the opportunity to go overseas for six months, Sam volunteers to look after her twin nieces, and sets up a joke mommy blog so her sister can see the children are healthy and happy. Unfortunately, a national newspaper somehow comes across her blog—which is full of perfectly posed pictures of happy children, healthy food, and a pristine house—and Sam’s blog goes viral.
But Sam is not a natural homemaker …
Sure, the children are happy, but their neighbour cooks the food, and the house is only ever pristine for the minute it takes to get the perfect photo.
Novak is a crime journalist with the newspaper, and his editor gives him an ultimatum: take a four-week holiday in Sunset Bay, interview the blogger, and write an article on her. Or he’s fired. So Novak is technically on holiday, but he does have this one article to write. His specialty is exposing fraud, and he figures Sam must be a fraud. She says she’s never lied. She just hasn’t told the whole truth, because the blog was meant to be a simple joke between her and her sister.
Sam and Novak are immediately attracted to each other, aided by two small girls who also fall for Novack and want him to stay. Sparks obviously fly, but there will be a showdown.
This is my favourite kind of romance: something that’s fairly low-stakes.
We know the hero and heroine are going to end up together (because otherwise it wouldn’t be a romance), so the tension is all built around a few key questions. When is Novak going to find out Sam’s secret? What will he write in his article? Given we know he’s going to tell the truth (because he always does), what will happen? How will they reconcile?
Okay, so there were elements of the story that were predictable (again, otherwise it wouldn’t be a romance). But I enjoyed the banter and interplay between Sam and Novak, I enjoyed the way the twins added to the story, and I loved Sam’s homemaker challenge of baking the perfect pie.
There’s also subtle underlying message about how we think of ourselves and how we define success. No, the ability to bake the perfect pie does not make someone the perfect person. Instead, we have to lean into the gifts God has given us … and that’s a good message for us all.
Recommended for rom-com fans.
About Liwen Ho
Liwen Y. Ho works as a chauffeur and referee by day (AKA being a stay at home mom) and an author by night. She writes sweet and inspirational contemporary romance infused with heart, humor, and a taste of home (her Asian roots).
In her pre-author life, she received a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Western Seminary, and she loves makeovers of all kinds, especially those of the heart and mind. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her techie husband and their two children, and blogs about her adventures as a recovering perfectionist
You can find Liwen Ho online at:
About Imperfectly Proverbs 31
Journalist Daniel Novak is on a forced vacation with just one assignment: interview blogger Samantha Rose, who is looking after her nieces while her sister is temporarily working overseas.
Here’s the book description:
She’s trying to be what she’s not. He’s where he doesn’t want to be.
To help her archeologist sister, geeky Samantha Rose agrees to swap her black T-shirts and diet of pizza and ice-cream for a pretty apron and a summer caring for her adorable twin nieces and their newfoundland dog in Huckleberry Lake, Idaho. How hard can it be?
When Perfectly Proverbs 31, the blog she starts to reassure her sister, goes viral and everyone believes she really is a wonderful homemaker, Sam reluctantly needs to keep up the pretense. If she doesn’t, she risks ruining everyone’s summer. The girls’ oh-so-capable and over-protective grandma will surely swoop in to take them away from her.
Forced by his boss to interview Sam then take a vacation, a month at the lake with nothing to do but write a fluff piece is burned-out city crime journalist Daniel Novak’s worst nightmare. But he finds Samantha surprising and delightful, as her attempts to impress him with a picnic go horribly wrong. Time with her could restore his lost faith in people — and in God. Except, he has to write the truth in his article.
Can Ms Klutz-in-the-Kitchen transform herself to a Proverbs 31 woman in time to stop him revealing her blog is a fake? And what will happen to their growing love when he does.
Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who loves a good happily ever after.
Cammie Evans was a girl with a plan from the moment God called her to be a foreign missionary. After several years spent all over the world, though, she finds herself with a new assignment that leaves her questioning all that she once thought to be true about life, love, and calling.
