Literally less than one week off the press, “Counting Stars” by Michele Paige Holmes is possibly the newest LDS fiction book on the market. I had the privilege of picking up one of the first copies at a signing this last Saturday.
The book was different from other LDS romances I’ve read. Our main character is Jane Warner, a woman who will shortly be thirty and is unmarried. That’s bad enough by itself, but her family teases her, prays for her, and wonders if she’ll ever get married. Turns out, it’s pretty hard to get married when you’re not even dating. Driven by loneliness, Jane starts looking through the personal ads in the newspaper, coming up short when she reads one from a man who is looking for someone to raise his children. Jane wants to have children more than anything, and so with a little bit of trepidation, she answers the ad, only to get off to a horrible start with the man who wrote it.
His name is Paul and he’s bald. He’s short-tempered and treats her like she’s at a job interview, not on a date. But then she comes to discover some of the reasons why – he’s got liver cancer, has been taking treatments, and only has a short time to live. His wife passed away only a short time previously, right after giving birth prematurely to twins. His desire to find someone to care for his children is urgent, and he’s running out of options. He does have one brother, Peter, but Peter is in Iraq, flying an Apache, and besides, he had a terrible fight with Peter years ago. It had something to do with the fact that he married Peter’s fiancé.
Despite the fact that Jane can’t stand Paul, she falls in love with the babies, and agrees to come to the hospital every day to help feed and care for them. As one thing leads to another, she finds herself agreeing to a more permanent arrangement, living in one half of a twin home with Paul in the other half. But when she finds out that Paul has made arrangements she just can’t live with, she wonders what on earth she’s gotten herself into.
This is not your traditional romance novel – it takes twists and turns throughout and leaves the reader surprised. I enjoyed it. It’s nice to read something that breaks the mold and gives us something new to think about. I found “Counting Stars” to be one of the best-written first novels I’ve ever read – funny, touching, and insightful. I’m already looking forward to reading the next book by Michele Paige Holmes, and I only finished this one five minutes ago.
(This book was published in 2007 by Covenant Communications.)
Related Blogs: