Liz Johnson has done it again! Where Two Hearts Meet is my NEW favorite book of all time. I am loving the Prince Edward Island Dreams series. Like the Red Door Inn, this book has sweetness and laughter and romance, and some really hard issues, but most of all it has faith.
Caden has so much to be proud of, but cannot see it. She's sweet and giving and fun. She belts out show tunes with the same zest and energy she puts into her cooking. She creates marvelous breakfasts and to-die-for afternoon treats for the guests at the Red Door Inn. But her self-image is colored by how she views her looks. She believes she is content, but she lacks the ambition and confidence her accomplishments should provide.
Reading Caden's journey to self-confidence was a joy. To Caden, cooking is about serving and pleasing others. Not about kudos and compliments. Although Caden really, really wants to win the annual Lobster cook off, for herself and to save the Red Door Inn, the creation of her recipe becomes more about making something people will want to eat than about winning. Her own skill and Adam's confidence in her allows her to triumph. Throughout the book, we see her belief and trust in God grow and change.
Adam's survivor guilt has him floundering in the darkness. He was a non-combatant, a journalist, embedded in a military unit in a war zone. He feels responsible for the deaths of two men he had been profiling. He believes that his articles from the front caused their deaths. He cannot stop replaying the incident in his nightmares. This threatens his sobriety. Forced into a sabbatical by his editor/mentor, Adam arrives in PEI a day early for a month-long recovery. Caden's sweetness, and her sweets, draw him out of his self-imposed exile of the soul and into a new understanding of Who God is.
Marie (the co-owner of the Red Door Inn from the first book in the series) thinks Adam is the “undercover” travel writer she's been told to expect and asks Caden to show him the beauty of Prince Edward Island with an eye to rescuing the inn from failure. As Caden shows Adam the island and shares her love for the Red Door Inn and her job as their chef, a unique relationship builds between Caden and Adam. They laugh and share and heal.
As always, Ms. Johnson has thrown us some lovely peripheral characters. On one side of the equation are the Eisenburgs. An older couple that share their breakfast table with Adam. Levi Eisenburg provides a wise foil to Adam's grief. Sharing his own past and healing and journey of faith, Levi guides Adam to see his life in the light of God's plan.
On the other side of the equation are the lively teens that Caden is teaching to cook. They adore her and she adores them. The lessons she gives them are more than about cooking, they are about life. And they return the favor.
I have been a Liz Johnson fan since I read her first book, maybe eight years ago. However, this book was the most difficult for me to read. I have felt Caden's insecurity. I have suffered her self-esteem issues. And Ms Johnson nailed them. To the door. I felt those feelings again reading Where Two Hearts Meet. But, Liz doesn't stop there. She brings faith and love together to heal two hearts and pointed me, once again, to the God Who heals our hearts.
Two Hearts can be read as a stand-alone, but to get the whole history of the Red Door Inn and the people who live there, it would be good to read The Red Door Inn, the first book in the series.
I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. The opinions in this review are my own.
