Hope is a common theme among faith-based novels which have flooded my mailbox for four months now. But among the list of storytellers and novelists – most of them I have just encountered – it was Kathryn Springer’s The Hearts We Mend that spoke a great length about the eternal spring of hope made available to anyone willing and open to reach out for it.
While the novel talks about the love story of Jack Vale and Evie Bennett after an unlikely first meeting in a dark neighborhood followed by a surprise second meeting on church grounds, The Hearts We Mend is a story of hope: hope for a lost brother to find his way, hope for a second shot at true loves, hope for the success of a community project that seemed impossible to put together.
If it was Springer’s intention to weave the lives of the character’s along the thread of hope, then she was successfully in this literary attempt to deliver a story that lightly caressed the heart and sent the brain a delightful message urging the mouth to curve into a smile.
The unlikely pairing of Jack and Evie creates a tension in the entire story: dainty and well-organized lady in her 30s paired with a construction guy whose family history can be the subject of Hollywood action-packed, emotionally-charged movies. Springer took advantage of this tension and threw in characters like the little girl Lily, Jack’s niece, to sweeten the mood. Springer did not stop at Lily. She included more children in the mix making some chapters smell of baby powder, diapers, and baby cologne. I mean that in a good way.
As much as the novel showed us Evie’s coming of age, so to speak, the novel invited reader to look deeper into ourselves and think about the many times we didn’t actually walked the talk or refused to acknowledge that we need to pause to listen to ourselves and not just other people’s views or opinions.
Jack’s character is reminiscent of the so many misunderstood and misjudged people in our society, who are immediately judged by virtue of their looks or appearance. But nobody can really know the Jacks of this world unless they take the chance to step inside his shoes and live his life. We, as a people, need a lot of growing up to do in terms of dealing with and judging people like Springer’s Jack Vale.
Another striking point in this novel is the close-knit community of Banister Falls where everyone took care of each other out for the welfare of friends and neighbors, and treated each other as family members. The characters of Dan Moretti told Jack Vale “We are brothers in Christ” to which Jack interpreted as a deeper, more meaningful connection to being just blood brothers.
I love the two neighborhoods that were distinctly defined in this story: the part of town where Evie “belonged” and the part of town where Jack lived.
Somehow, these two neighborhoods converged and the meeting, which did not go smoothly at first, eventually resulted to a fruitful partnership.
The novel talked about two instances of early marriage (at 18!) and though I frown at the decision of most people to commit at such a young age, I realized that I do not have the right to judge or jump into hasty conclusions that married life will strain the growth of individuals. This novel tells us that people, as young as 18, make decisions and while we may not approve of it, we do have to respect it. Evie is a role model in this aspect.
This is the second installment of the Banister Falls series (the first one being The Dandelion Field) and I think will be seeing more of the characters in the succeeding stories.
I did not read the first book which tackled the love story Dan and Ginevieve but reading the first book is not a prerequisite to read The Hearts We Mend. It’s a standalone book and it won’t give you a hard time knowing the characters even if you skipped The Dandelion Field.
I initially felt that there were several characters in the story that I found “problematic” and whose voices I felt were drowned in the story. There was Cheryl, the wife of Jack’s brother Travis who just disappeared after a seemingly prominent presence in the early chapters of the novel.
Then there was the case of Evie’s former in-laws. Whatever happened to them after attending their grandson’s wedding? Did their animosity and anger toward Evie remained? Would they ever be a reconciliation? If that’s the right term to use in their case.
There were several characters: Ryan Tate, Bert, Ron, Zach, Nicki… but hey, this is a series so Springer might just surprised us with the next story in which all these characters might collide in the most unexpected situation.
While I liked the theme and the characters, I feel that the flow of the story was not well-paced. I feel like there was a lot of back and forth movement between the characters and some scenes were stretched too long that the first 15 chapters were almost boring. However, action picked up in the succeeding chapters and I was glad to finish the book at 4:00 a.m.
I give this book eight of 10 stars.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book from TNZ Fiction via the Litfuse Publicity Group for the purpose of this review. I was not required to write positive reviews. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”.
