Book 13: Ready or Not by Chautona HavigThis book was simply captivating. The writing was clever, and pulled you into the story. The story is about a young girl named Aggie whose family endures a devastating loss of her sister and her brother-in-law in a car accident, followed by a terrible mistake at the hospital. With both parents now deceased Aggie finds herself inheriting the couples 8 children. Aggie, just out of college is thrown into the role of Aunt Mommy, and all that goes with it.
Thinking about my own 2 children it's hard to imagine how difficult being thrown into the role of raising 2 would be let alone 8. She is alone, as her parents can't help even though they would love to as her Mother suffers from a heart condition and can't be over stimulated. Her sister and brother-in-law also had been wise in their planning for an emergency such as this, because they knew that the mother-in-law, was to put it mildly...CRAZY! This can be evident as you find Aggie going through trying to undo the damage she caused by telling the children they could not cry after the loss of their parents as it wouldn't be appropriate to display such emotion.
Quickly she realizes that the home she also inherited is not going to be conducive to raising the children, so finding a new one becomes a priority. She finds herself finding a wonderful home, further out in a small town, that is ideal. Ideal aside from the fact that it is a complete fixer upper! She begins to tackle the job with the help of Luke, her car dealer Zeke's nephew who turns homes for a living. Project after project begins, and in the midst of renovations illness, schooling and life must continue on. The author did a great job of making all of these events seem real, and remind you of similar events in your life.
Does Aggie survive the GIL (Grandmother-in-law), renovations and becoming the Aunt Mommy? Reading the book is the only way to truly tell, or reading the rest of this book review since I couldn't STOP reading!
Having finished book 1 of the series I quickly found myself screaming (silently of course) WAIT... you didn't finish the story! Will Aggie make friends with those in the new community, will she finish the renovations, how will she survive the next step of child rearing?! Luckily, a quick scroll down my list of books I had downloaded as they came up as FREE choices for my Kindle revealed book 2!!
For Keeps (book 2) by Chautona Havig
Aggie has survived the move, some dealings with the GIL and now is about done with the home renovations, thanks to Luke, Luke's Uncle Zeke and his family, as well as her good friend Tina that has come to help her survive life as a Mom of 8. Yet, just like Motherhood the adventure does not stop there. Now she is facing even more issues with the GIL, as well as realizing that getting 5 children out the door to school, especially now that they are dealing with a chicken pox nightmare is just not going to happen. The most logical thing, especially since she did major in education in college, is to home school. I know many people have more than 2 children, and home school, but personally I can't even imagine trying to run a household with 8 small children, home school them, and feed, clothe, and stay sane all without help. While Aggie has friends, that have come along side her, it still isn't the same.
Then a surprise letter arrives giving her another option. Will she jump at it, and throw admit that she can't continue on the way she has, or will she look for her own option. Her one friend, William, an over protective policeman from the small town that she has moved to, decides he knows the solution. He tells, well I guess offers, to marry her. What?!? Not only can she not believe it herself, she is shocked as he seems to always be the one to tell her how she is doing everything wrong. On top of that, he has a secret when it comes to the house, that she finds herself trying to unravel.
Aggie is doing her best, and thankfully Luke, the handyman, turned good friend, is there to remind her to be who she is and keep plugging away. What will happen to their relationship....frantically flipping through the list of books on my Kindle I discovered that luckily I had previously downloaded
Book 3 Here We Come
Luke and Aggie have become great friends in the first two books. Now it's time for Luke's secret. He loves Aggie. During the end of book 2 he finds himself being forced to tell her, to hopefully save her from making a mistake. Will she love him back. One look at the cover and you probably can guess the answer. Yet, again is there time with 8 kids to learn how to love someone. Isn't it hard enough to learn how to survive?
As she falls in love with Luke, they begin to learn how to make it through wedding preparations, broken bones, homeschooling dilemma's and of course Christmas. Will they be able to survive the biggest nightmare of all? I would love to say what that nightmare is, and if they survive it or not together, but I should leave you with some mysteries, especially if you are willing to start reading the first book. If you do pick it up, be prepared, you could end up like me, trying to find bits and pieces of time to keep reading!
Chautona Havig, has a gift of storytelling. All 3 books, if I had time to read straight through would have only taken me a few days to read. Not having that kind of time they took about 13 days to finish. I realize for 3 novels that is still pretty fast, but it certainly helps when you spend a lot of time sitting in line to pick up kids, or unfortunately at the doctor's office with a child. They were all easy reads, and well worth the time. The stories not only were captivating they reminded me, like Aggie we all feel the need to give up at times. To think "I can't do this", but God has other plans. With Him we can do anything, and when we focus on Him, it becomes much easier to do just that, make it through anything.
I would give the whole series 5 stars.
Next up on my reading list:
Always Looking Up The Adventures of the Incurable Optimist by Micheal J. Fox
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