You're the One that I Want
2016 • 385 pages

Ratings1

Average rating3

15

My review refuses to post. Here it is for later:
I had conflicted feelings about this one. The family drama was front and center, with Owen being the family scapegrace who fathered a child in a one-night stand with the same girl his own brother ended up getting engaged to not too long after. This element of the story really brought down my enjoyment of the characters because it felt like it was put in for shock value.

While I think I understood what the author meant to do, which was likely to illustrate something along the lines of “even good folks can be caught doing bad things,” things really didn't add up. The parents are portrayed as absolute pillars of local faith—but the kids have nearly all been stuck in major sin and have to become a prodigal at some point.

If the parents are really so dedicated to God, why's it normal to have that many wandering children? They absolutely love home, but they left in their teens and have rarely gone back? This all required a large lapse in credibility that I wasn't able to make the leap for.

Also I had a very big issue with the brothers' propensity for physical violence to each other, which broke out hot and heavy and had apparently sparked neighbors calling the police in concern when they were kids. Why in the world would parents possibly allow that degree of physical violence between brothers? And strong Christian ones, too? On top of the physical violence (which at least they never turned against a woman) there were some jail issues and other such things.

Overall, fun and easy read except for that little believability part.

January 31, 2019