Love at Any Cost (Heart of San Francisco #1)
Set on the coast of San Francisco, author Julie Lessman brings us a sassy romance when Texas heiress Cassie McClare visits her Aunt Cait during the Gilded Age. Jamie McKenna has been working hard all of his life to provide for his impoverished family and has his mind made up that he wants to marry an heiress to provide a costly surgery for his invalid sister. He sees Cassie as his ticket to wealth and courts her as passionately as he can despite her resistance.
At the heart of this burning (slightly uncomfortable in a Christian novel) romance is the prerequisite of Aunt Cait for Cassie to only love a man who loves God first. These ladies aren’t taking no for an answer, and the journey towards faith for Jamie is not an easy one, forcing Jamie to make difficult decisions which do little to endear the reader to him. Overall, if the reader can get past the multiple references to slanting, tipping or flat smiles, the interesting blend of romance with spiritual tones make up for the bumpy start. The supporting characters help flesh out the story while also providing for a strong start to this faith-based historical series.
