Justified (Mended Hearts, #2)
by Varina Denman
Radiant Lit Blog Tours
Publisher: David C. Cook
Release Date: June 1, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Christian
Pages: 416
Buy at: Amazon, ChristianBook
Add on: Goodreads
Find the author at: website
Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5 out of 5 stars)
In a small Texas town ruled by gossip, Fawn Blaylock believes others are justified in condemning her untimely pregnancy. Stifled by guilt, she yearns for grace while the local football coach treats her with gentle respect.
My Review:
Fawn Blaylock is a small town Texan girl, and when she unexpectedly gets pregnant out of wedlock, she goes from the girl who gossips to the girl being gossiped about. Judged by the town, kicked out of her home, and repeatedly abused emotionally and sometimes even physically by her boyfriend (and father of her baby) Tyler, Fawn starts on a new path when she is given a small place to stay rent-free by an anonymous Good Samaritan. With the help of her friend Ruthie and local football coach JohnScott, Fawn eventually settles in and feels like she can take care of herself and the baby. But will she ever forgive herself enough to allow love into her heart once again?
Let me just start with the fact that I haven’t read the first book in the Mended Hearts series, which in my opinion it may have been helpful to read Jaded to know and understand the characters better, but it certainly wasn’t necessary to enjoy the story. Justified surprised me in many ways. The author does a great job of pulling her readers into Fawn’s world and becoming invested in her story. I ended up reading the whole book within four hours straight because I really just wanted to see how it would all play out. Not only did I become invested in the characters, but Denman has this down-to-earth writing style that made imagining the story so easy. Fawn was at first a hard-to-like main character, not because of her situation but because of her slightly tough attitude. Later she grew on me, and I found myself inspired by her strength and rooting for her and JohnScott with a ferocity. And mentioning JohnScott…awww. He was too stinkin’ cute and his interactions with Fawn just made me smile and laugh throughout. One of the other highlights from Justified was the small-town Texas setting. The drama was high with gossip, family secrets, fistfights, and love triangles! I loved it. 😉
Overall a cute, romantic, and inspiring contemporary read! Solid character development, endearing romance, charming small-town setting, and good storytelling made this one to be remembered. I will definitely be checking out Denman’s other books in this series and beyond.
Note: I received this book as part of the Justified blog tour from Radiant Lit. I received no compensation for this review and only received a copy of the book for review purposes.
Review copy provided by the publisher for Radiant Lit Blog Tours.
I found this picture on Varina Denman’s website of “Fawn” and thought it was perfect, so naturally I had to share. 🙂 Visit Varina’s site here for more cool extras and great, meaningful blog posts!
Have you read Justified? What do you think? Which contemporary books are on your to-be-read list? Thanks for visiting my blog. ♥
Oooh! I love historical fiction, and I too haven’t read the first book to this series, but after reading your review, I’m very eager to check it out! 🙂
Hi Sarah! I just got back from visiting your new blog, love it! Thanks so much for stopping by mine. 🙂
Same, I adore historical fiction, which is exactly what I thought this book was for like the first five chapters…but when some things weren’t making sense I did a little research only to discover it wasn’t a historical!! Lol! It *does* look like it from the cover though, right?! Glad I wasn’t the only one. 😉
Thanks again for reading! I hope you like if/when you try it out. 🙂
Sounds like a really good read (great review, by the way!). I’ve never read any of Varina’s books, but have seen them on GR or making the blogosphere rounds. This one sounds particularly good. 🙂
Thanks a bunch! Yeah, I *really* enjoyed it! This was my first book from Varina. I actually signed up for this tour without even knowing fully what this book was about, too, so it was such a nice surprise to love it as much as I did. 🙂 Hope you enjoy if/when you try it out!