Book Review of From The Start by Melissa Tagg

Want a fantastic book by a fantastic author? Check out Melissa Tagg and From The Start. The story is fun, powerful and extremely delightful.

Publisher's blurb:

Kate Walker used to believe in true love and happily ever after. While her own love life may have left her brokenhearted, it hasn't kept her from churning out made-for-TV romance movie screenplays...until a major career slump and a longing to do something meaningful send her running back to her hometown of Maple Valley. 

Permanently sidelined by an injury, former NFL quarterback Colton Greene is temporarily hiding out in a friend's hometown to avoid the media and the reminders of all he's lost. Maple Valley seems like the perfect place to learn how to adjust to normal life. The only trouble is he's never really done normal before.

While Kate plays things safe and Colton is all about big risks and grand gestures, they both get what it's like to desperately need direction in life. An unexpected project gives them both a chance to jumpstart their new lives, but old wounds and new dreams are hard to ignore. Starting over wasn't part of the plan, but could it be the best thing that's ever happened to them?

This book was a true delight to read. The characters are deep and real, making the story easy to settle into. Both hero and heroine are stuck - their past and their future. They both had dreams that seemed to be falling apart around them. Then they are drawn to the heroine's hometown to help it recover from a tornado. 

A perfect setting to match the turmoil they each feel inside. 

They begin to work side by side to rejuvenate this little town and its citizens. Both characters are clinging to a thread of a new future plan, a sliver of hope. Then the town barely recovered from the tornado, faces a new threat of a flood. Sometimes starting over means all that we have now needs to be washed away. And that includes all the future plans of our characters too.

I loved this story. It is an "against-all-odds" kind of plot. It was so easy to cheer for the two main characters. They changed and they grew in their faith and in their trust. And then of course they grew in their feelings for each other. Amazing story!

I have nothing negative to add to this review. The book as an outstanding 5 out of 5!

And just because Melissa loves to offer fantastic stories, you can check out an e-novella available that extends the story line of two characters in From the Start. It's titled Three Little Words.

Sounds like this is only the beginning for Kate and Colton and the little hamlet of Maple Valley, Iowa. Stay tuned for more to come!

Thanks to Bethany House and the author for a chance to review this book. I was provided a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to review it positively.