A review by hugbandit7
Wooing Cadie McCaffrey by

4.0

Bethany Turner takes us on an emotional ride through Cadie and Will's dating life.  They met on Cadie's 30th birthday, and as Cadie called it, it was the perfect "meet-cute" moment.  It is what Cadie has been waiting for all her life.  What she fails to realize is that life is not a romance movie or book...well maybe she does since she accepts the fact that "Cary Grant does not exist in my Millennial world".

The book fluctuates between past and present and I really liked the different chapter titles.  Chapter 1 is Four Years later.  To the Day.,  Chapter 2 is About Twenty-five minutes earlier.,  Chapter 3 - A Day or Two later. Three at the Most.  and so forth.  The fluctuations give us a peek into Will and Cadie's dating life over the last four years - their expectations, adventures, and desires.  We also see the issues that neither seems to be able to verbalize and I think that is the crux of their issues - lack of communication.  It isn't as if they don't communicate, but they don't talk about the important things like where they see their relationship heading, what they want out of life, and their faith and beliefs.  Cadie is strong in her faith and beliefs, whereas with Will, we know he has beliefs but not sure exactly what they are or to what extent his faith extends.

Fast forward four years later (from the prologue to chapter 1) and it is Cadie's birthday and their dating anniversary...remember, they met on her birthday.  Anyhow, Will has an opportunity to springboard his career at work and this is the culmination of their conversation issues.  The story really starts at this point and with unplanned sex.  Nothing could ever go wrong there, right?  Cadie and Will had agreed that they were waiting until marriage and considering that Cadie's parents are church/faith leaders this puts a lot of pressure on her...basically like good ol' Catholic guilt.  Both Cadie and Will have a lot to learn from this experience and it takes some frank conversations with her parents and with each other before there can be any hope for them.

Will and Cadie have a great support system and it is ultimately what helps them through this crisis, along with some honest and frank conversations.  There is a lot of humor that made me chuckle in various situations and then there are moments where I am holding my breath that all will work out for these two.  One of the lines that I felt summed up the situation for Cadie was "it's simply a matter of you deciding whether or not you want to spend your life with this man - and what it might take to do that."  After all that she had learned by this point was she willing to do what it takes?  And was Will willing to do what it takes?

Overall a very enjoyable book.  For a Christian romance, I was surprised that the faith portion was fairly light.  There was a lot of focus on the one instance of sex (that is behind closed doors) and after a while, it started to overshadow what I think was the heart of the issue - communication.

We give it 4 paws up and look forward to what this author has in store next for us.