Review: Caleb + Kate by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma

Book Description via Goodreads:

Private school, rich friends, vacations in France--Kate has it all, except a belief in love.

When Kate's family purchases a hotel in the Pacific Northwest, she enters a world that is wholly unknown to her. She never has any privacy because of the constant flow of guests. And as the hotel owner's daughter, she struggles to make friends.

Then she meets Caleb, a strange combination of working-class, Hawaiian culture, and Christian bad boy. He talks about love in an all new way that she finds so alluring. But the two have nothing in common. He rarely smiles, rides a motorcycle with a rough crowd from town, and worst of all, he totally ignores Kate. But Kate has something that he needs and she resolves to prove to him that what she has doesn't define who she is.

Source: Thomas Nelson (Thanks!)
My Thoughts:

This story was gripping with its youthful vibe. The alternating perspectives worked nicely for me. It was entertaining to read how each of them was affected and to be able to gouge and see the impact of their awakening attraction. The concept of love and perfect love was questioned and evaluated.

Humble and kind-hearted rich girl, Kate Monrovi, does not believe in a fairytale true love. It has been wiped out of her system. I like Kate. She was probably the most down to earth character I’ve ever read about. Not forgetting God and the little people eventhough she has everything she needs and wants.

Although the characters surrounding them were living with worldly pleasures, Caleb and Kate were amazingly pleasant and a little too close to perfection. Although I do love this…well, there was always a possibility for those kinds of people to exist. It was just that I felt that one of them needed to have a real flaw, for this to be more realistic to me.

I had this desire to dig deeper into the origin of the family feud. I felt that it should have been elaborated more since it was the reason for all the tension. The story unfolded smoothly otherwise. I could really feel the tension and attraction escalating. The hesitation and doubts budded around the would-be-couple and the line between socialites and those outside of their circle grew more pronounced as Kate starts to be more than friendly. In a world where money and material things are all that matters, Kate finds a deeper reason to go against the rules of her social circle.

Caleb + Kate is a modern tale of Romeo & Juliet romance that is both contemplative and grounded with the heavenly morals. Flushed with young love and feud bitterness, this novel is perfect for lovers of clean romantic stories.

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