This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Bluetomarto. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Best First Book, Romance with Spiritual or Religious Elements category.

Here is Bluetomarto's review:

Firstly, despite the very contemporary cover of 2 people embracing, this is an inspirational romance so physical displays of affection are very limited – 2 kisses over the entire book! Also I thought the cover appeared slightly young adulty. However, it is definitely a story with adult characterisation and plot.

The book has a rather unique setting of a luxury tour of New Zealand aimed at Tolkien enthusiasts and is really quite charming. The heroine is an ex-Tolkien fan; she speaks fluent Elvish and previously worked as an academic specialising in Tolkien’s literature.

Unfortunately the Bad Event in her past, and possibly too many tours, has meant that she has lost her enthusiasm for her previously treasured fantasy world. During the novel, while helping the hero with his problems and facing up to her Bad Event, she finds her way back to her previous love of her academic subject and to God. I really like that her love of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit was presented as a valid interest and that she found comfort in the stories and writing and was able to relate quotes to her own life. Allison’s love of fantasy is presented as complimenting rather than threatening her religious beliefs.

The description of the tour, the people on it and the amusing things that happen to them are by far the strongest elements of this book and I often found myself laughing out loud at the writing. There seems to be a parallel between the characters in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit going on journeys through Middle Earth and the members of the tour going on their journey through New Zealand, though this is not too obvious and doesn’t get in the way of the story. One of main characters (the rich great uncle) has a definite magician-like stature in the story, though his miraculous acts are enabled by lots of money rather than magic. The similarities are not intrusive and any comparisons do not get in the way of the very modern story of wealthy tourists enjoying a luxury tour complete with helicopter tours and a river cruise.

At various points in the tour the characters dress up as Lord of The Rings and Hobbit characters and the hero’s horror at being made to join in is hilarious, particularly when he is transformed into an orc! Jackson ends up in hospital on multiple occasions as slapstick-style unfortunate events happen to him and Allison is always falling over and getting covered in substances such as mud and vomit. The author pokes fun at all the different characters on the tour, but in a very gentle way, and the tour sounds AMAZING with visits to locations from the film set and beautiful parts of New Zealand – in fact at times I was left wondering if the New Zealand tourist board had a hand in the writing as it sounded so appealing.

The heroine Allison is presented as competent, knowledgeable, smart and kind. She made an unfortunate choice and comes from a horrible family so I also feel quite sorry for her. Allison is admirable, but not too perfect, and I enjoyed reading about her; she takes care of everyone on the tour and demonstrates her knowledge and common sense on numerous occasions. A bad plot point is that her complex poisonous family dynamics magically resolve for no very good reason; I couldn’t work out how she went from having an awful family to having a supportive sister without any in-between steps.

The hero Jackson is less memorable; we are told that he is an American ex self-made millionaire but we never see him doing anything innovative or business-like. He takes responsibility for others and his own previous bad decisions and is generally admirable while being physically and socially clumsy. He has a perfect family background and his family are presented as salt-of-the-earth, simple and good, which gets a little tiring, but Jackson’s devotion to his family is by far his best feature. However I could never understand why Allison liked him as he is not exciting, amusing, competent or charming, rather “meh” really. Maybe he’s too ordinary for a romance novel, but by definition a self-made millionaire is not ordinary!

In the first part of the book we have lots of the tour with episodes of amusing bickering between our hero and heroine and from time to time Jackson and Allison have alone time to brood so we find out their backstories. I personally found the tour much more interesting than the brooding and as the book went on we had a gradual transition till it was all about the romance and the characters’ problems. I therefore enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book, which was tour-focused, much more.

The romance was not a strong element in the book. I felt that the characters certainly had chemistry but I did not truly understand why they fell in love. While I wanted both characters to sort out their problems and have good lives, I did not find myself cheering for their relationship.

The characters do have difficult, though not necessarily tragic, elements to their backstories which leave them both in troubling situations. I was fine with this and was interested to see how they would make good choices and work hard to resolve their problems – but this did not happen and I felt this was a weakness in the story. One character rescued the hero and there was lots of talk about God and I’m fine about that, but there are clearly times when the characters maybe needed to act themselves, when their passivity, which is portrayed as a sign of faith, could actually be damaging.

For example the heroine puts herself into a bad situation with a man she describes as a “sociopath” due to misinformation and her determination to follow her religion but when the hero finds out and wants to warn her, he is deterred by God’s voice which I thought was terrible and I was terrified for her when she finally confronted the villain alone (nothing bad happened – its not that kind of book.) I would rather if the hero had helped with God’s guidance. I like inspirational romances where God and religion are important features in guiding and comforting characters but in this story God’s purpose seems to be closer to the magical force that you find in some paranormal or sci-fi novels when the heroine suddenly develops a special power and that solves all the problems. In non-magical novels I like characters to work things out for themselves!

In conclusion, this is a romance you could let your 10 year old read and if you love Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit it is fun to spot all the references to the books and films though the story. There is no violence or sex. Although a minor character does get diagnosed with cancer so it’s quite a gentle read. Will I ever re-read? Well, if I ever go to New Zealand I will probably re-read this book on the plane but I don’t believe I would re-visit the story in another context. I didn’t feel the romance and I didn’t like how religion was used to resolve plot points within the story. I’m giving it B- for the humour and the great writing but I wouldn’t really describe it as a romance.