Always On My Mind by Susan May Warren

Reviewed by Martha Artyomenko

About the Book: (From the author’s website)

A Christiansen Family Novel:Book 4

After a failed dig in Honduras, aspiring archaeologist Casper Christiansen heads home to Minnesota to face his unresolved feelings for Raina Beaumont, the woman of his dreams. But when he arrives unannounced on her doorstep, he receives the shock of a lifetime: Raina is pregnant with someone else’s baby.

Heartbroken, especially when he discovers the identity of the baby’s father, Casper tables his dreams and determines to be dependable for once, helping his older brother, Darek, prepare the family resort for its grand reopening. Casper longs to be the hero of at least one family story, but a never-ending Deep Haven winter and costly repairs threaten their efforts—and the future of the resort.

Worse, one of Casper’s new jobs constantly brings him into contact with Raina, whom he can’t seem to forget. A tentative friendship begins to heal fresh wounds, but can they possibly overcome past mistakes and current choices to discover a future together?

(Read the first Chapter here… Susan May Warren)

My Review:

Book 4 in a much beloved series for me. Was it worth the wait? I would say that it was. We have traveled through the different family members of the Christiansens. When we finally have made it to Casper, it found me waffling between anger for him and feeling sorry for him. I have to admit wanting to shake Raina a bit.

This book is not different than Susan’s other books. There is a good mixture of light humor, deep topics, all the while weaving a deep spiritual message throughout. You experience the pain of the characters throughout.  I loved the secondary story with Darek and Ivy. It is so nice to follow characters through the next books that you fell in love with in previous books. I could feel the frustration and almost smell the leaking propane with the beautiful word imagery that Ms. Warren used in these scenes.

Overall, I am not looking forward to this series ending. This is a series that I want to own each one and re-read them over time. It has some deep life lessons that are valuable to each marriage, family or single person. These books will reach into your soul and cause you to search there. You will be asking “What can I learn from this?” with each story that you read.

The unwed mother scenario addressed in this book, the shame she felt, unspoken or spoken is often an issue which Christians deal with. They may mean to be accepting or un-accepting, but often they come out driving away the very people they were meant to minister to.

Today, it was Sanctity of Life sunday, and the focus was on abortion, as it always is. Often though, I wonder how much we actually support the moms that choose to keep their babies. It could be that it would not be 1 in every three women that feel like they have to have an abortion if we did better at that. Adoption is a wonderful thing, but supporting mothers so they know the healing of the Lord, can raise their children in the way of the Lord rather than feeling shame and seeking absolution in the only ways they know how.

Raina’s story touched some nerves in me and I hope that others that read this story will be encouraged to look around and reach out to someone that may need a friend.

I highly recommend this series of women’s fiction for adults.

This book was provided for me for review by the author. The thoughts are my own.