When Life Gives You Lemons, Drink Coffee! by Deanna Martinez-Bey - Review

Janine is a smart and sassy southern girl from Triple Creek, North Carolina, who knows what she wants and fearlessly goes after it. Janine's goal of making a life for herself and marrying the man of her dreams finally became a reality. She was a newlywed, married to a successful business man named Tom Whitfield and owned her own bakery. Their life seemed perfect and all was well in Janine's world until her faith is rocked through a course of events that would challenge her own beliefs and change her fate forever.

Tom is unexpectedly promoted to a new job that requires change for both he and Janine. Leaving her life in Triple Creek to support her husband's career took a leap of faith for Janine and was a risk so early in the marriage. But the bigger threat comes when Janine discovers some of Tom's darkest secrets and learns valuable lessons while she was there.

Janine makes new friends in New York, but she still misses her family and friends in North Carolina. She discovers that love is not always predictable when faced with new challenges. Can love truly conquer all? Or are some things best left behind? After seeing things that shock her, Janine feels betrayed by people who she thought she could trust.

This is the second installment written by author, Deanna Martinez-Bey, and focuses on Janine, a character we met in her first book, Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star. Told from the perspective of Janine and her funny southern humor, this story will move you while you share in this journey of discovery, love, betrayal, and the realization that you can make anything you like out of what life gives you.


My Review:

An inspiring faith based story about letting go and finding true happiness. 

Janine had a good life.  She was newly married to a wonderful man and had great friends and family.  She owned her own bakery and was fully involved with her church.  But when her husband accepts a job in New York and Janine is forced to leave her home town and everything that was familiar to her, she has no idea what she is in store for.  She loves the B&B Tom bought for her, but something is still missing.  When Janine tells Tom she has decided to go back to North Carolina for a visit her family, it angers him to the point he won’t even talk to her.  Soon Janine starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together and makes a surprise visit to Tom.  What she finds shakes her world and has her questioning her faith and wondering why this would happen. 

Janine is now faced with starting her life all over again and she finds love and happiness where she never expected to find it.

Of course the first thing that caught my attention to this book was a character with the same name as mine.  But once I started reading, I was fully engaged in the story.  It’s personal and heartbreaking at first, but it but it wraps up with a very good message.  Everything happens for a reason.   You may not realize it as the time, but it makes sense in the end.