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It’s been a year since Trevor Monroe lost his wife, Brenda, to a drunk driver, leaving him and their children alone to face the world. He still isn’t ready to move on to another relationship, but he sure has plenty of women from the church he attends throwing themselves at him, hoping to become the next Mrs. Monroe. Trevor wants none of them, and instead he concentrates on running his bakery business, taking care of his two daughters, staying in fellowship with God, and trying his best not to hate the man who killed his wife.
Cassidy Beckett returns home to find her beloved Aunt Odessa has moved Trevor and his daughters into her home while theirs is being repaired after a kitchen fire. Cassidy does all she can to avoid Trevor and make him feel unwelcome because she has no desire to let another man into her life—or her heart—because men have done nothing but hurt her. She’s also hiding something from her past that she can’t forgive herself for. She isn’t sure even God forgives her, and she’s convinced her heart that Trevor won’t, either.
Both Cassidy and Trevor must learn the power of forgiveness before they can ever hope to have a healthy relationship. And with a cast of friends and foes trying their best to tear them apart, they’re going to need God in their life more than ever.
Forgivin’ Ain’t Forgettin’ is one of the few honest and real Christian novels I’ve read, and I highly recommend it for anyone who’s in a relationship. The story teaches you, in an entertaining way, the proper way to handle strife, grief, jealousy, and a host of other maladies that can strike a loving couple—as well as those in other types of relationships. Ms. Elliott does it all without preaching or making her characters sound holier than thou. In fact, I loved her characters because they had faults I could relate to.
It’s also a tender and moving love story that I couldn’t wait to get back to each night. Cassidy is a gracious and loving woman, despite her past, and Trevor is a man of integrity, to be greatly admired. Though he has his faults and can be tempted just as well as the next man, he’s still a good guy. There are so few men like him in the world.
Forgivin’ Ain’t Forgettin’ also left me with a powerful personal lesson that helped me interpret a biblical passage in a fresher and clearer way. Something I hadn’t really understood in the past made much more sense to me after reading this wonderful novel by Ms. Elliott.
