Review: Rally 'Round Green by Judy Christie

Goodreads: Lois and Chris are eager to settle into a calm married life, but that won't happen. While Green continues to recover from a horrendous tornado, the state of Louisiana announces plans to close Green's schools, citing poor academic performance and the area's shrinking population. Lois and Chris know the loss will crush the community and harm students forced to travel more than an hour to classes.

Despite warnings from her coach husband, Lois gets in the middle of the controversy, butting heads with a new teacher, who appears to be a spy for bureaucrats, and pushing the state Legislature with Mayor Eva and Molly, who walks to Baton Rouge in protest. The hotshot consultant sent in to monitor the school is none other than Mayor Eva's long-ago, almost-forgotten ex-husband, mixing up Eva's renewed friendship with Dub McCuller. The district's legal woes bring attorney Terrence to town, much to Dr. Kevin's delight. The highway continues to creep forward, raising more doubts about the future of Green, and Lois learns that to make lasting changes, she will have to refuse to conform but be transformed.

Kritters Thoughts: A cute little read about a small town that is in a fight to save the school that provides the entertainment and social center for the community. Coming from a very small town, three stop lights in all, I related closely to the ability for a school to be the heart of a community and without that school the community would fall apart.

An extremely large cast of characters which at times were very hard to keep straight. I almost made a cheat sheet to remind me who was married to whom, who was fighting with whom, and where each of them worked. I think this was the key aspect that made it hard for me to fall absolutely in love with the book. Everytime I set it down, it was even harder to pick up because I just wasn't sure where everyone stood in the context of the main character Lois.

A christian fiction that didn't beat me over the head with its bible verses and messages to urge the reader to "come to jesus." I enjoyed that this book was sweet and thoughtful, but not crazy christian fiction as some stories can become. A great read for the beach, but please start at the beginning of this series as it may help with the merry cast of characters.

As I was finishing this book, I found out it was the 4th book in a series, so I will have to go found the first three and read them now - such a bummer.

Rating:enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Pages: 256

Cover Challenge April-June: Me, Myself & I

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book via NetGalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.