Courting Cate by Leslie Gould

I know not to judge a book by its cover, but I must say that this cover caught my eye and I immediately wanted to read it.  The cover is beautiful and quite attractive.  That goes for the back cover, too.  Most of the books don't carry over their beauty from the front of the book to the back, but I found that was just another part that made this book so desiring for me to read before I even opened it to the pages.  I also really like the slick feel of the book.  It's very clean cut and I actually liked taking it with me places because other people asked about it's beautiful cover.  It reassured me that I wasn't the only one who hadn't seen such a beautiful cover in a while!

As I started the book, I was immediately drawn to Cate.  I enjoyed reading about Cate in first person because I could envision myself as being her.  I think of it as I'm reading a play part and playing a character.  I was able to get into the character of Cate quite easily.  I liked her spunk at first and how opinionated she was.  However, as the story went on, she kind of got on my nerves a bit.  I felt that she was very bitter and it annoyed me that she didn't want to just let it go that she had been hurt before.  I did like how she went to Pete's house after they were married and slowly, she began to change.  Her old self was chipped away into something beautiful.  I would absolutely love to see how marriage changes her in future books.  Her sister, Betsy, was very manipulating and I couldn't figure out my thoughts on her.  Even now as I've finished the book and have pondered on it a day, I just can't seem to form an opinion on her.  Pete was very sweet and he captured my heart from his first entrance.  He seemed to be very devoted and had morals.  He also seemed up to the task of convincing someone who didn't want to be loved that she did, in fact, need to be loved. 

I was very glad at the ending and glad things happened as they did.  At the rate Cate was going, I don't think she would have pursued marriage on her own!  I'm looking forward to the next books in the series and would love to see updates on Cate and Betsy.  There were parts of this book that I laughed out loud because of something Cate had said or thought.  I loved the lightness of this book, yet it held some deeper thoughts of forgiveness and choosing your attitude and moving past circumstances.  Any reader of Amish fiction will definitely want to add this to their bookshelves.

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I received this book free from Litfuse Publicity Group and Bethany House Publishers in exchange for my honest opinion of this book.