The Small Town Preacher's Fake Marriage is one of the best Christian fiction titles I've read recently! Seth is applying for the preacher position of a small congregation in the small town of Moose Hollow, but the board is reluctant to hire a young, single man. So naturally he advertises for a wife in the classifieds. Evie, having read her ex-boyfriend’s marriage announcement, spies the ad and immediately replies--not because she’s heartbroken (he was a sleaze), but because it feels more right than anything has in a long time. They enter into a marriage of convenience, but what happens when they’re spending every day working together in close quarters and feelings change?
Spunky Evie as a small-town preacher's wife was hilarious. She felt she was always saying the wrong things, but they gave me so much joy to read. I wish she had more lines! At one point my daughter came into the room to investigate all the cackling and made me read her a few pages too.
The scene that set me cackling actually turned out to be my favorite of the novel. Evie and Seth are given a baptism---er, funeral of fire. Their first morning on the job Seth has to officiate a funeral for a woman he’s never met from another church and Evie is in charge of the luncheon preparation in the kitchen. To encourage Seth to do his best she calls out, “Knock ‘em dead!” Not quite what you would normally want to say in the case of funerals, but it becomes an inside joke between the couple throughout the novel. (A good inside joke and shared experiences always makes for a more authentic couple.) Then one of the pallbearers takes a phone call in the middle of the service to talk volubly about the incredible fishing that he’s missing in order to be there. With McConnell’s descriptions you can just picture the hats bobbing up and down as the ladies try to maintain their composure, the men shifting about the pews, and the poor preacher having to duck out during the closing hymn to laugh privately with his wife.
But what I really love about this book is that while there is a lot of humor, concurrently we get moments of insight and spiritual growth from the characters. Just before the fish story, Evie is realizing that she hasn’t been as faithful in recent years because she allowed herself to change to satisfy her boyfriend and listening to her husband’s soothing words again confirms her spontaneous action and renews her desire to have the Lord in her life again. Very few of the moments are divided into spiritual and amusing, instead combining both as life normally presents those moments.
I loved the one-liners throughout the book that made me think differently about my favorite scripture stories. One example is when Seth looks on the picture of Jesus pulling Peter from the water onto his feet once more. He reflects that the state of the water never changes, but that Peter himself changes. It’s a simple thought, nothing that will shatter Biblical scholarship, but there are quite a few places where I was able to pause within the story for a moment and just revel in the beauty of the language and the thoughts expressed--even, occasionally, where I was on that journey of faith.
As for Seth himself, the preacher elicited a few 'bless his heart' sighs from me as he dealt with his feelings of inadequacy in his new marriage and position, and Evie was so quick to help with support or comfort. She made me jealous a few times in her perfect responses to her husband about his struggles and worth. He’d come from a lower-class home of drunks, only to rise above his origins and find a calling of the Lord, but he still struggled to feel worthy of it all. He was always afraid that he was going to mess up the blessings and miracles he’d been given in his life. I think most of us can relate to Seth’s insecurities and Evie’s desire to improve herself and her marriage.
I love all of Lucy McConnell’s convenient marriage books, but the balance of faith and humor in this novel sets a new standard. I was first introduced to this author through the Snow Valley Romance and Billionaire Marriage Broker (BMB) collections, and if you're interested in her work I highly recommend those. I've rarely been disappointed by one of her books and I now pre-order almost everything from her. Check out this first book in the series, previous links, her Dating Mr. Baseball series, or her Christmas Marrying Miss Kringle romances, all of which are also available in Kindle Unlimited. Lucy McConnell brings light and heart to all of her stories.
I admit I haven't finished Dumplin' yet, but I loved the Netflix movie and bought this as soon as it was on sale. I'm excited to read the story of Willowdean, self-proclaimed fat girl who enters the local beauty pageant with a band of misfits to gain the attention of her pageant-obsessed mother and finds a better, more confident version of herself. $2 this week on Kindle; the sequel Puddin' is not on sale.
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