A Surefire Love by Emily Conrad Review

A Surefire Love by Emily Conrad is the second book I have read by this author, and I sure can’t wait to read more of her books.

This story is a romance focused on Blaze and Anson’s relationship, but it is so much more. It is told from both Blaze and Anson’s points of view. They were acquainted growing up, but there was no real relationship, just bad feelings and misunderstandings. The book begins with a meeting between the two where Blaze requests helping out with the youth group which Anson, as the youth pastor, is in charge of. There is quite a bit of tension between the two at first, but we get to see their relationship grow and evolve as they give each other a chance and work through their issues with Christ’s help.

Now, I said there was so much more than just this love story. I was intrigued from the first sentence, which states, “Pain cascaded through generations of Astleys.” The book dealt with generational curses and family dysfunction and overcoming these things. It also dealt with struggles within the church, the struggles of trying to find the right kind of program to keep youth involved in this day and age. But more than that, seeing the struggles churches go through to keep growing instead of shrinking. Having to learn to stay relevant without sacrificing the gospel of Christ. This becomes personal for Anson and is a great deal of the stress he is dealing with.

Additionally, Blaze is trying to raise her pre-teen sister Mercy while dealing with the struggles of ADHD and getting proper diagnoses and treatment for both her sister and herself. Then add in a mystery with someone apparently hiding out in the church and a bigger disaster toward the end of the book that may be related. Let’s just say, this all joined together to keep me eagerly swiping through pages to see how everything would be resolved.

I loved that this was a realistic story, but also was so frustrated seeing the way Anson was treated by his own church family. I really wanted to go to bat for him. Of course, I’m sure I would have said the wrong things and hurt the situation, instead of diffusing it.

The author really made these characters come to life and I was really rooting for Blaze and Anson’s relationship. I loved seeing the relationship between Blaze and her sister Mercy. But there were so many side characters who were important to this story.

All in all, this is just a wonderful story, and one I highly recommend.

I received an ARC of this book as a member of the launch team and was not required to write a favorable review. These are my own honest thoughts.