Book Review: "Never Say Never" by Lisa Wingate

Kai Miller floats through life like driftwood tossed by waves. She's never put down roots in any one place--and she doesn't plan to. But when a chaotic hurricane evacuation lands her in Daily, Texas, she begins to think twice about her wayfaring existence. And when she meets hometown-boy Kemp Eldridge, she can almost picture settling down in Daily--until she discovers he may be promised to someone else. Daily has always been a place of refuge for those the wind blows in, but for Kai, it looks like it will be just another place to leave behind. Then again, Daily always has a few surprises in store--especially when Aunt Donetta has cooked up a scheme.

On this third trip to Daily, Texas readers are once again invited to join the kooky antics of Donetta, Imogen and Lucy. This time the trio are headed to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation on a cruise. However due to a miscommunication and lack of computer knowledge, the women don't realize that they are headed into the middle of a hurricane until it's too late. They are soon joined by Kai Miller, a young woman who's searching for something more in her life, as they try to outrace the storm and back to Daily. On their way, they end up meeting more folks in need of help during the storm which eventually leads to a verbal war between the three woman and the queen bee of Daily. I thought it was great to see everyone again from Daily. The characters are ones that are very memorable and a hoot to read about. I especially enjoyed reading about Donetta's background and the story about her grandmother.

My only qualm is that I didn't feel as if I gelled as well with Kai as I have with Lisa's other two female leads in this series. While I liked her very much, I just felt for some reason that I didn't get to really know her. Still, she's a great character and I really enjoyed hearing about her exploits while in Daily (having to wear a purple windsuit takes major guts!). Also her relationship with Kemp was fun to read. The incident involving the dogs and rat traps was hilarious. I probably would have been laughing and/or squealing along with Kai and the vet.

If you haven't read the other two books in this series, you won't be lost when reading this book. Never Say Never can totally be read as a standalone with only certain characters overlapping and events in past books briefly mentioned. I was kinda hoping that the book would be about Amber from the first two books, as I hadn't liked her character and was hoping for some redemption but alas she doesn't appear at all in this story. Overall I really enjoyed the book especially the very sweet ending. I'm hoping to make at least one more trip back to Daily as I've learned to love the townsfolk and the adventures that they create there.

Never Say Never by Lisa Wingate is published by Bethany House (2010)

This review copy was provided for a blog tour with the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance