A Family for Luke

Love in Millar's Crossing #3

by Carolyne Aarsen

Luke Harris grew up without family. Now, it's all he wants. More so when he and his friendly dog move next door to widowed mom Janie Corbett and her three kids. For the first time, he can imagine hearing the pitter-patter of little feet in his own home. Listening to their bedtime prayers. Having a wife and children to call his own. But once-burned/twice-shy Janie won't say yes—unless Luke acknowledges his troubled past. With the help of one stubborn woman, three smart kids and a cherished Labrador retriever, there might be a family for Luke, after all.

Genres: Love Inspired, Christian Romance, Christian, Romance, Christian Fiction, Family, Fiction

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2008

About the author

Even with over 1.5 million copies of my books in print, I still feel like I haven’t written the perfect story. From my office in the woods of Northern Alberta, I’ll keep trying. Inspired by spectacular sunrises, breathtaking Northern Lights and long walks through wooded trails, the stories keep coming. To find out more about my life and my writing, check out my website at www.carolyneaarsen.com

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet inspirational romance featuring second chances, blended family, a great dog and HEA.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luke remodels houses to resell for a living and the current house he is working on it next door to a widow’s house with 3 children. The author does a good job of showing how overwhelmed the mother is and how tired. You do start to lose patience though when she keeps trying to do everything on her own, not even having her children help. Luke was a foster child who still has problems with his own mother and doesn’t attend church so how can the relationship work out? Since this is inspirational romance a biblical theme is thru out the book.

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not care for Janie or Suzie, I loved Autumn and Todd though.

[Deanne Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luke and his partner buy a house next door to widowed mom, Janie and her three children with the sole purpose to fix it up and sell it. Cooper, Luke's dog is excited to see children in the yard next door and rushes over to greet them. The youngest child, Autumn is frightened of the dog because of a past experience she had with a dog. Janice is very protective of her children and let's Luke know she wants nothing to do with him or his dog. Being that, Luke is in the fix it up business his trained eye sees things on Janice's house that need fixed and he does it. As the children already like, Luke and his dog and even, Autumn has warmed up to the dog, Janice as well starts to warm up to him. Luke, is bitter that his mother didn't want him and preferred men,booze and partying to him and he carries this resentment over into his adulthood. Because of this he sees Janice and her children as the perfect family but she has secrets of her own to hide and does not feel deserving of his love and commitment.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janie is running a coffee shop and raising her 3 kids after her husband divorced her and then died... Luke is flipping the house next door. Can he forgive his own mother for abandoning him? Can Janie let someone help her?

[LINDA BOURG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story, enjoyed the characters, throw in a sweet puppy who draws a family together and you have a winner. All in all a good read. For some reason it took me a while though, i have not been able to read like i use to. I don't have the desire to, hope this funk passes.

[Michelle Shafer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of the Love Inspired books. They are good, clean stories with biblical truths woven in the story. This one was about forgiveness. I would recommend all of the Love Inspired authors.

[Lorelei Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable

Lots going on in this story. Critical mother, surprise pregnancy, unintended husband/father, death, foster care....just keeps on going to make a very sweet story!

[Mary Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this novel about the need to forgive others in order to be truly happy. I enjoyed watching the interaction between the two main characters who finally found a way to compromise. And, who wouldn't enjoy watching the antics of Cooper, a big Labrador, who doesn't know his own strength? This is a good, clean, fun read.

[Nancy Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luke and Janie

A story about how life can turn around. He's renovating her neighbors house and she's a widow that desperately needs help. Finding love together is a great story.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many twists and turns in this book as you watch Luke and Janie try to decide what is right for each of them. They are both so concerned about being hurt. I was so happy for them in the times that they were able to have growth and see hope.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a heartwarming story about a young man (Luke) with a troubled past that yearned for a family. The family next door consisted of a widow with three children. My favorite character was the golden retriever who brought them all together!

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is great but always seems to be dampened by tilly. She’s a huge bitch and no one makes her confront her own snooty attitude.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christian romance. Did not know that it was part of a series when I checked this out from the library. Nice self-contained story.

[Trish Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book. It gives people an idea of just how hard being a single mom trying to raise three children on your own can be.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Janie was very hard to connect with and the story was very lacking in many areas. I just couldn't support this book and almost dnf'd it but I didn't. It took me 2 months to get through.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story and the characters. Predictable plot. A good effortless read to relax with.

[Liz Nesbitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was okay

When I read the description of this book I was super impressed and I really thought it would be amazing. It was a good book.Yes , but it was kind of a disappointment

[Bitsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The victim of a bad upbringing, Luke has always wanted a family he could rely on. His mother was often absent from his life, and before CPS finally removed him from her care, he ended up feeling rejected and abandoned more often than not. His foster father was loving and caring and introduced him to the concepts of love, acceptance, forgiveness and a real family. His foster father’s death a few years ago left Luke feeling abandoned and rejected all over again and so he leaves the church and immerses himself in work, that is until he meets with widow Janie and her three children. Janie has problems of her own in her life. She is struggling to be the superwoman that does everything: mother, small business owner, home maker and, most importantly, financially independent in the wake of her husband’s massive debts. He sees in her a realization of all his dreams of a perfect family come true when he needs it most, she sees in him a distraction and an upset to her already chaotic and far from perfect life at a time when she needs it least. What follows is a novel about forgiveness, family, and faith.

This is a very strongly Christian novel. There are strong themes about what to do with, and how to approach, a life with God. There are prayers and bible verses quoted throughout and several discussions by the main characters about faith, church, and God. All of the events in the book are viewed through this lense and some of the topics are a little controversial, especially for a christian novel, though the wording was always very discrete. The topics covered, in no particular order, included child abuse and neglect, pre-marital sex, children out of wedlock, divorce, teen pregnancy, abortion, foster care and adoption, alcoholism, underage drinking, drug abuse, gambling, spousal abuse, and domestic violence.

There were times though when the mother and daughter both nearly drove me up a wall. Mostly for the same reasons. They were both obstinate and head strong and they both desperately wanted independence, at the expense of any familial relationships they might have otherwise engendered to their betterment. In the end though the character was very realistically portrayed as too overworked to think about what she was doing and I appreciated that realism about her. I could see how harmful being a "superwoman" was first hand in this book.

I ended up giving this novel only three stars, first off, because there were several very glaring errors that an editor really should have caught. I normally forgive the first three, but everyone I see after that just detracts that much more from my reading of it and there were at least half a dozen if not more. Second, it is standard romance, so the plot line followed a very standard formula that I was very familiar with. Finally, there is being stubborn and then there is being down right obstinate and I believe the heroine in this novel pretty solidly fell into the second category. Yes, pay people back when they do some yard work for you, but if they break something on your property and replace it don't offer to pay for it to "assuage your pride", at that point you're just being pigheaded.

So, fans of romantic Christian fiction interested in a couple that seriously test their faith and rely heavily on prayer, bible passages and heart felt, faith filled discussions to see them through will enjoy this book, at least to a degree. Be prepared for the very real, if tastefully worded, depictions of the above listed controversial topics. You will find all that and more in this book that comes right down to, at the very heart of it, forgiveness.

[Harmony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I tend to write long reviews, there is a short and a long version. The long version is hidden under spoiler tags and may include spoilers.

Short Version: This is a clean Christian romance with no sex and no swearing. Overall, I enjoyed this story and most of the characters in it (not Janie or Tilly, don't like either one of them). The central theme seems to be forgiveness, it did get very heavy handed at times with the preaching.

Long Version:


The author seems to love to visit the theme where one must forgive others no matter what, not only forgive them but to forget and allow them back into our lives. I do not agree with this and actually find it highly annoying. Forgiveness, yes. However, I believe that if the person is toxic and that their presence harms our peace then they should not be allowed back into our lives. I didn't like how the author had Janie force Luke into allowing his toxic mother back into his life.

I also didn't like how Janie was such a martyr. To be frank, I just didn't like Janie. I felt that she toyed with Luke. She was cruel in the way that she would lead him on and then push him away. He even told her at one point:

“What do you want, Janie? What am I supposed to do? I kiss you and you push me away. I try to be a part of your life and you won’t let me. I know where you’re at. I get that you’ve got to protect your kids, but in order for me to make any kind of commitment, in order to know whether what we shared is going to go anywhere, I need something from you, too.” Janie looked away and stayed silent. Luke looked down at her, then left.

I cheered a little when he told her this. He deserved so much better than this neurotic and closed off woman. A woman who was beating herself up because she had thought about aborting or putting up her oldest daughter for adoption because she found herself pregnant at 18. She thought about it. THOUGHT ABOUT IT. She did not go through with it. Then she spends the next 14 years beating herself up so much over her THOUGHTS (again the ones that she didn't go through with) that she doesn't discipline her daughter. She allows the child to run wild and loses control of her because of her guilt.

UGH.

She forces Luke to forgive his mother and allow her back into his life because....

“I want to. I need to. Because if you can forgive your mother, then I can feel that Suzie will, in time, forgive me.”

It's not even the same!! She thought about it while Luke's mother abandoned him over and over due to her love of drugs and alcohol. Also, there is no reason whatsoever to ever tell Suzie about her thoughts. It would hurt the child and it serves no purpose to tell her. Other than allowing martyr Janie to have her moment again. SIGH.

I gave this book a 4-star rating because in spite of Janie, it's a really good book. I adored Luke. I loved her two youngest children and Luke's dog. I loved the way Luke treated Janie and her children. He's such a great character, so strong and caring.

[Sara Mccarthy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t really like the main character :(.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an engaging read that had me feeling as though I were at times reliving my days raising a teenager, and all the anxiety that went along with it! I’m so glad I don’t really have to go back to those days and I can just love on my teenage grandchildren, and then send them home with their parents—ha ha! Seriously though, this book had some beautiful lessons on faith and forgiveness, and they were woven seamlessly into the plot in ways that didn’t come off too “preachy.” Luke, Janie, and her three children were all characters I could sympathize with and root for their happy ending, since they had all gone through such difficult times, and Luke’s dog Cooper was a bright spot amidst all the sadness.

There were times in the book that I cried along with Janie and her unbearably heavy load, and other times I wanted to shake her because she wouldn’t let Luke help her when he offered numerous times. Janie’s mom was extremely judgmental and unlikable, and I wanted to really give her a piece of my mind. A good storyteller like Ms. Aarsen is able to bring out all kinds of emotions in the reader like that, and I applaud her talent. I look forward to reading more of her books in the future. I received an advanced copy of this book from the author, and have given my voluntary and honest opinion.

[Bernadette Cinkoske · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy the books in the Love in Millars Crossing series. A Family's Hope grabbed me on the first page and did not let go until I gave up a few hours sleep to finish it. Luke, Janie, her kids and Cooper, the golden lab are all well developed characters. Luke yearns for a family and Janie is determined to be independent. Both have lessons to learn and need to forgive those who have hurt them, before they will be able move on with meaningful relationships. Ms. Aarsen writes very powerful stories with faith based characters. I have loved every one of her books I have read.

Merged review:

I really enjoy the books in the Love in Millars Crossing series. A Family's Hope grabbed me on the first page and did not let go until I gave up a few hours sleep to finish it. Luke, Janie, her kids and Cooper, the golden lab are all well developed characters. Luke yearns for a family and Janie is determined to be independent. Both have lessons to learn and need to forgive those who have hurt them, before they will be able move on with meaningful relationships. Ms. Aarsen writes very powerful stories with faith based characters. I have loved every one of her books I have read.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of family dynamics, how it affects our lives, and, how others view those events as outsiders watching the interaction. We “think” all is perfect in the families of friends, co-workers or those we do business with; but, what goes on behind closed doors is usually different. Everyone in this world has certain situations that we might try to hide or refuse to understand, but true love from friends and family can make all the difference.

This story-line is fabulous as a 35 yr. old man yearns for a family and a young woman brings on all kinds of heartache as she remains the determined person to do everything on her own. Issues were resolved, forgiveness was found and lessons were learned. That’s the reason for the five star review. The writing is powerful. However, you may find errors in spelling, typos, etc. but I’m overlooking it from this author as I know her books are usually perfect. There are always situations that need forgiveness and understanding. And, I love this author!

[Irene S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contractor Luke is remodeling his dream house to flip. As a former foster child, Luke wants the family and the dream house, but isn't sure if that is possible for him. Single mother Jamie lives next door with her three children. Struggling with her coffee café business and her three children, Jamie doesn't have time for a man in her life. Luke is drawn not only to Jamie, but her three children. Jamie keeps trying to distance herself from Luke. I received a free copy of this ebook from the author. This is my honest and voluntarily given review. I love how Luke's dog Cooper is such an integral part of the story. At first, Cooper is an obstacle for a relationship with Jamie. I love how Jamie rather than Luke is the one that Cooper obeys. It was interesting to see how Luke viewed the family as 'perfect' while Jamie was very aware that her family's dynamics weren't. I love the themes of forgiving ourselves as well as the healing of forgiving others. I really enjoyed reading this book. It also had me reflecting about relationships in my life.

[Vicki Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunningly awesome book about a couple who find themselves as neighbors. She is a widowed mother of three and he has grown up without a caring parent and was put into the foster system at 12yo (which was ultimately the best thing for him). Now he buys houses to flip and this one is behind schedule. As always a wonderful job by this author of bringing this tender and heart breaking story to the reading public. The storyline will grab you and add that along with the wonderful characters you will be entranced from the first page to the last. There were a few things happenings that had me thinking back to my years as a teen and my mother! (And I am now 75!). A great addition to this series.

I received an ARC copy of this book. This is my voluntary, honest, and completely personal review.
VICKI FROM WYOMING

[Lori R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the theme of forgiveness that was woven among the pages in this story. Luke needed to forgive his mother in order to move on and let love into his life. It was cute to see how the dog, Cooper brought a whole family into Luke's life as he was rehabbing a house to flip.

I liked Luike's neighbor, Janie and her three children. She also needed to forgive herself and I thought it was so realistic that she did not want to ask for any help and was unable to gratiously accept help from a stranger or her parents.

I especially enjoyed the Bible verses which were such an integral part of the Millars Crossing book where Carolyne Aarsen weaves such realistic characters and stories you cannot help but enjoy reading her books. I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5 Luke, a former foster kid, is making a good life for himself rehabbing old homes but he bears a wounded heart that desperately wants to belong to a family and have a wife and kids. When he meets Janie, the neighbor next door to his current project, he feels a pull towards her and her family so when he learns she is single, he finds himself hoping to get closer and to help to care for her many needs. But Janie is having nothing to do with that notion. How do two determined people whose goals are at odds find a way? I loved reading the author’s solution. There was also a big, sloppy, lovable dog in the mix that made for lots of humor and heart. I highly recommend this book! I was entrusted with a copy of this book by the author and this is my voluntary and honest review.

[SJ Garrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed Jamie and Luke's story. Janie had lived with guilt of never being enough. With the pressure of an over bearing mother, adding to the forced marriage to appease her parents. Luke had been neglected as a child and to many times had been disappointed by his mother after getting his hopes up. Both were struggling with inner demons. Luke was flipping a house next door to Janie. Janie was trying to pick up the pieces of her life with her 3 children, after her husband died leaving her in major debt and the inevitable loss of her Coffee Shop. I laughed and fussed throughout this book. I love it when books do that to me. If you like clean, second chance stories, you will enjoy 'A Family's Hope'. I received this book from the publisher. The thoughts and comments are my own.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Family’s Hope by Carolyne Aarsen
Love in Millars Crossing Series Book Three
Luke Harris flipped houses but didn’t have a home himself. He wanted a place to call home and a family. Something he never had as a child. Never knowing his father and his mother never cared about him. Being in foster care with a caring man was his only taste of what he had missed. And now, he could almost see his dream here in Millars Crossing.
Janie Corbett was a control freak. She had to be. A single mom, deep in debt thanks to her deceased ex-husband, and a business to run to help support the four of them. No time for her handsome temporary neighbor and his overly peppy puppy.
An incredible story of forgiveness and second chances.
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