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Pages: 41
Goes Well With: Carolina BBQ and a cold glass of sweet iced tea
Some of my regular readers (hi, Mom!) might recall that I don’t usually have great luck with these Lunch Break E-book reviews. I struggle with the short format, finding that the plot is too thin or the dialogue too forced. I’m happy to report that I found none of those problems with Small Town Treasure by Dora Hiers. It was quite simply a treasure of a story.
Matthew Westerly is the fire captain in the small town of Journey Creek, North Carolina. He loves his town—so much that he made it his life’s work to protect her and her citizens. He also loves Emily Mannerson, the girl who got away. Emily had a rough childhood and felt that she needed to get away from the sympathetic head shakes and murmurs of “poor little Emily,” so, after graduation, she moved to Raleigh and attended law school, intent on becoming a family lawyer.
Emily convinced herself that she and Matthew couldn’t work—that Small Town Boy and Big City Girl was just a recipe for disaster. Matthew tried to convince her that, with God, all things are possible. So when Emily comes back to Journey Creek to nurse a dear friend through breast cancer treatments, Matthew can’t believe his good fortune. But can Matthew get Emily to see that he’s part of God’s plan for her? Can Emily overcome her fear of returning to her small town roots? Can they both see the small town treasure they have in each other?
All in all, Small Town Treasure is a great little book. Simple, sweet, and well-written, it doesn’t have any of the issues that I normally see in such short books. The plot is well fleshed out, with enough backstory to give the reader an understanding of the main characters’ histories without either getting bogged down with too much information or getting confused from a lack of information. The dialogue is realistic and not forced in the slightest. I even appreciated the religious overtones; it’s inspirational without being cloying or heavy-handed.
Often, one of my biggest complaints with these short novels is that there isn’t enough tension, and, technically, the same is true of this one. There really isn’t any tension at all—but that’s all a part of the book’s charm. Sometimes, you just want a simple, sweet, and straightforward story with a guaranteed happily-ever-after ending. It’s like comfort food for romantics.
I couldn’t recommend this little book more. It’s so sweet, I have a feeling that I’ll be pulling it out whenever I’m feeling low or doubting love’s power to heal or God’s power to change us. Small Town Treasure really is just that: a treasure.
