Love and Other Mistakes

I love supporting Australian authors, and I'm so glad I did. My only regret is that I read A Girl's Guide to the Outback first. Although they aren't part of a series, some of the characters appear in both books, and I would have appreciated knowing this before I started, so as to read them in the order they were written. Apart from that, Love and Other Mistakes was excellent. I did, however, find myself needing to take a break every so often, thinking how can these dear characters cope with so many stresses, one after the other in a never-ending parade of crisis and drama. I don't know how they did it, and I wonder whether anyone's life is truly this jam-packed with stress. God, love and faith reign supreme in the end. Definitely worth reading.

Whoever writes Jessica's blurbs has got to start including the third POV. It has been missing in both of her books' burbs. In my opinion, Natalie and Jeremy took backstage to Lili. \\nThis is a spoiler, but it's here as a warning. If you have been betrayed by a parent or someone in authority at the church, this book may not be right for you. It was like reliving some of the worst moments of my life, and I couldn't find the hope the author wanted to portray. I saw only the blackness because the book is so vividly written in the moment. There was too much time spent on the deepening levels of betrayal to be helpful to me. My advice to the author would be to spend more time after the fact and less during the betrayal. That way we can see the good that comes from the bad. I only walked away with more trauma not a way out of the darkness. \\nI would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed 'A Girl's Guide to the Outback' which I read first. I learned a lot from that book while being very much entertained. I just cannot recommend this book to everyone. It was too heavy for me, so precede with caution.

I love finding books by other Australians, particularly because it is rare in the Christian fiction world. So when I discovered Jessica Kate was Australian I knew I wanted to check out her books. \\n\\nThis book actually surprised me. I was not expecting the heaviness of some of the topics covered. This surprise, however, did not take away from the book. I really enjoyed the story and how Jessica was able to handle those topics, mixing it in with the romance I love.

This is Jessica Kate's debut novel and I think she's done a good job with some complicated material. I was expecting a fairly light romance, but there are a lot of heavier issues. The writing style is good and there are a lot of fresh, creative metaphors and similes, often with a bit of sass and quirk. However, there were a lot of pop culture references (e. g. singers, actors, brand names) that were lost if you didn't know who/what they were. \\n\\nThrough the characters and story development, we see that life is messy. These were not cardboard cutout characters, but real people with flaws. Different aspects of Christian faith are also dealt with, as the characters have to work through various issues such as forgiveness and identity. There were perhaps a few too many issues. Natalie and Jem had a lot going on just with their own relationship, Jem's baby, and issues they had with their own parents and why Natalie was pushing herself to win a ministry internship. However, there was another whole story to do with Jem's niece and the problems in her family. The fact that Lily was 16, also pushed that more into YA territory and probably could have been a separate book in itself. \\n\\nHowever, I liked the interesting take on Jem and Natalie's situation and I wanted to see how it all panned out. \\n\\nThank you to NetGalley for providing a free pre-release copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. \\n\\n

Firstly - hooray for another Australian Christian author!! Novels written by Aussies seem to have a special quality that I don't find in other books, and Jessica Kate is no exception. I loved how 'real' story was, with flawed (but lovable) characters, with messy lives where sin has consequences and innocent people suffer. But God is there through it all, beautifully demonstrating that He can transform our mistakes if we just let Him. I can't wait for Jessica Kate's next novel!