3 out of 4 stars
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Across the Bridge (A Copper Island Novel Book Three) by Kristin Neva is in the Christian Romance genre. The setting is in a small town of Quincy in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan called the UP. Drew Smith and his ten-year-old son, AJ, move from the downstate area (the Lower Peninsula) to the UP where Drew’s in-laws live. He hopes that his deceased wife’s parents will help him with AJ, as he feels he needs some support raising a son alone. They find a duplex to rent where Marcella Seppa lives and rents from her father. Marcella and Drew are attracted to one another, but neither one is ready for a relationship.
Marcella is a massage therapist, who enjoys gardening, drinking peppermint tea, and riding her bike to work. She is very angry and bitter towards God because she believes that God let her down by not answering her prayers to heal her mother of cancer when Marcella was just 15 years old. Drew had a difficult marriage with Kristine, who drank alcohol often and argued with him. When she died in a car crash, he has not yet let go of guilt feelings and grief of his loss. AJ struggles with the loss of his mother and moving to a new town. How will Marcella and Drew learn to love again? Will AJ adjust and be happy to a new home and school? What will Drew and AJ discover about themselves and others in the UP?
The loss of a parent, cancer, disease, old age, caring for an elderly, faith in God, love, and relationships are some of the issues and situations in this story. On the lighter side, Mak was a Finnish character, who wrote Amish Romance novels based on the lives around him. He had a female pen name. He and Louisa used Finnish words and expressions. Louisa was Marcella’s patient and her friend’s, Beth’s, grandmother, who had ALS. (ALS is a rare neurological disease that affects the voluntary muscles.)
While I was reading the book, I did not know that there was a glossary of the Finnish words used and an explanation of what the UP was at the end of the book. One of the things that I least liked was the fact that there was no explanation until page 111 for the UP abbreviation, and I was not familiar with what a “Yoop” was, as it was also explained in the glossary. I think that it would have been better for the reader’s experience for the author to have either mentioned what the UP abbreviation was or have the words highlighted and linked to the glossary. The author could also mention the glossary in a Foreword. That put aside, the story moved a little slow for my taste, and the reader was aware of facts before the characters were, since it was written from a third person’s perspective. There did not seem to be any surprises or twists and turns in the story. It had a satisfying ending with a possible lead to another book in the series.
I best liked that the book did, after all, shed some understanding about Michigan and Finnish food and expressions. I am sure I would not have been so lost if I had read the first two books in the series. Some of the minor characters must have been introduced in the other books because I did not know who they were or how they fit into this book.
The book was extremely written well, as I did not notice any errors with only one exception. At the end of the book, the book names of the series were listed, and book one was erroneously titled, Across the Bridge when it should have been Snow Country. Because of the real-life issues making the story believable and realistic, I rate Across the Bridge by Kristin Neva 3 out of 4 stars and not a two-star rating. I liked that there was no profanity or sexual content, which makes this book suitable for young or sensitive readers to those things. However, I do not believe that this book is a four-star rating due to the predictability and the assumptions made that the reader knew about Michigan and the minor characters. This book would appeal most to readers who like Christian romance and who have read the first two books in the series. People who like a lot of unpredictability and a fast-paced book would like this book the least.
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Across the Bridge
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