Title: A Girl’s Guide to the Outback
Author: Jessica Kate
Genre: Romantic Comedy, Fiction, Christian, Adventure
Release Date: January 28th, 2020
Synopsis:
Romance author Jessica Kate explores the hilariously thin line between love and hate in her heartwarming new novel.
Samuel Payton is a passionate youth pastor in Virginia, but beneath the surface, Sam’s still recovering from a failed business. His coworker—start-up expert Kimberly Foster—is brilliant, fearless, and capable, but her mother’s rejection from a young age till now has left her defensive and longing for a family. Two people have never been more at odds—or more attracted to one another. And every day at work, the sparks are flying.
When Kimberly’s ambitious plans for Sam’s ministry butt up against his risk-averse nature, Sam decides that obligations to family trump his work for the church. He quits the ministry and flies home to Australia to help his family save their struggling farm—much to Kimberly’s chagrin. As Kimberly’s grand plans flounder, she is forced to face the truth: that no one can replace Sam. To what lengths will she go to get him back?
My Review:
“Welcome to Australia.
Oh, that voice. A shiver danced between Kimberly’s shoulder blades. It was enough to make a girl throw her passport into the Pacific”.
It is amazing to me how just a few words can make you smile or tug at your heartstrings. Jessica Kate really took me on a marvelous ride in this book. I loved the fun cover, the textured feel to it and all the quotable moments in this book.
When I started reading this book, I immediately noticed how easy it was to relate to the characters. I personally think that it is because deep inside most of us associate with either Sam or Kimberly on some level. They had fun together, teased each other, and they did hurt each other (unintentionally). The making of a quintessentially fun couple. Any great relationship or story is based on how people handle themselves when they are faced with obstacles and Jessica Kate made these characters shine in the way that they handled the obstacles that came up.
In the Girl’s Guide to the Outback, we see some really great examples of overcoming obstacles, building friendships, compassion, and patience. There are two main characters Sam and Kimberly who made me smile more in the space of an hour than I usually do all day, and whom I feel will go down as some of my top favorite characters of all time. I would argue that Julie and Mick could be considered somewhat main characters as well, they were great and put smiles on my face as well 😊.
The overall plot was very engaging and was fun to read through. Jessica Kate really made me feel like I had traveled to Australia (Dream Destination!) in the way she described the climate, culture and fun lingo of the area. There were a couple of things that came up that I was not expecting which made this fun read even better.
I cannot more highly recommend reading this book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars for making me feel as though I was in Australia with the well-explained lingo, the great plot twists, and fantastic sets of characters. This was my first book by Jessica Kate and it will definitely not be my last.
*I volunteered to read this book in return for my honest opinion. The thoughts and opinions expressed within are my own.
About the Author
Australian author Jessica Kate is obsessed with sassy romances. As there can never be
enough of these in the universe, she decided to combine her humor, faith and love of drama into inspirational romantic comedies.
When she’s not writing stories, she’s nerding out over them as co-host of the StoryNerds podcast.
As a complete extrovert, her favorite things are theme parks, her big family, and living with housemates. It’s like a slumber party every day.
