This week’s Wednesday Reads is one of those books that everyone was talking about a while back. I saw it on so many recommendation lists for lovers of Christian romance and chick lit, and when I finally went looking for it, I found that it was on Kindle Unlimited! (Yes!)

The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck starts with an interesting premise. A woman who writes wild romance novels under a pen name becomes a believer and falls under conviction regarding what she does for a living. Wait a minute, I can hear you say. That sounds familiar! Y’all, I was saying the same thing, all panicked, thinking I’d unintentionally and unknowingly stolen another’s writer’s idea! Never fear, though. I wrote and released Pure Fiction long before this one came out. Whew! And this one is pretty different after that original premise, so…

The book has a really quick pace, full of girl talk type of humor, and it reads like a romantic comedy. Sarah, the heroine, finds love after a disastrous marriage, but the road there is challenging given her past career (which doesn’t disappear when she becomes a believer) and her new love interest’s position as the pastor of a church. I thought the conversion moment was glossed over, almost as if it was a paraphrase (she actually says within the text something to the effect that she won’t go into the details of how it all happened), and the conclusion seemed a little unrealistically tidy. But honestly, these were tiny things that were overshadowed by the wonderful voice of this entire book. Sarah is a loveable character, full of self-deprecating humor and honesty, and her reactions to faith, the church, and her purpose as a new believer are delightful. I read this one in one sitting – it was that good!

Head on over to Amazon and grab this one because it lives up to the hype!