It’s Summer, you’re looking for a great book to read by the pool, at the beach, lounging on the back porch with a cold glass of sweet tea. Meant to Be Mine by Becky Wade needs to be the next book on your TBR list. Why? A charming rodeo bull rider, the girl next door, broken hearts, a secret pregnancy, and the ultimate story of forgiveness. Need I say more?
Meant to Be Mine is the second book in the Porter Family series, the first being Undeniably Yours. If you haven’t read that one yet, you can still read this second book without losing much of the back story.
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Ty Porter has always been irresistible to Celia Park. All through high school–irresistible. When their paths cross again after college–still irresistible. This time, though, Ty seems to feel exactly the same way about Celia. Their whirlwind romance deposits them at a street-corner Las Vegas wedding chapel.
The next morning they wake to a marriage certificate and a dose of cold reality. Celia’s ready to be Ty’s wife, but Ty’s not ready to be her husband. He’s a professional bull rider, he lives on the road, and he’s long planned to settle down with the hometown girl he’s known since childhood.
Five and a half years pass. Celia’s buried her dreams so that she can afford to raise her daughter. Ty’s achieved all of his goals. Or thought he had, until he looks again into the eyes of the woman he couldn’t forget and into the face of the child he never knew he had.
How much will Ty sacrifice to win back Celia’s trust and prove to her that their spontaneous marriage can still become the love of a lifetime?
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Becky Wade is one of my all time favorite authors, in my top five favorites hands down. I’ve read her other novels My Stubborn Heart and Undeniably Yours, and have loved them both.
Meant to Be Mine is a fun contemporary Christian romance. This author never sugarcoats real life situations, but she does write them in clean ways that shouldn’t offend Christian readers.
While not my favorite story by Becky Wade so far, this is still undoubtedly a fantastic book. We meet Ty Porter up close and personal. He’s Bo Porter’s brother (you meet Bo in Undeniably Yours) and is a cocky, handsome champion bull rider. Celia is the classic girl next door, in love with the boy she doesn’t think she could ever have. Until that one fateful night… then the book skips ahead five years and you find that neither of the main characters lives have become what they thought it would.
I love Ty. He’s a mans man, flawed, but with a true heart. Celia was harder for me to connect with. While I understood her emotions and her reasons for not trusting Ty, she was just too wishy-washy for me. She didn’t seem as solid of a character as she could be. I just wanted her to make a decision and stick with it, but it literally took the entire novel for her to decide what direction she wanted to go concerning her relationship with TY.
Celia’s uncle and daughter are great secondary characters, and I loved catching a few glimpses of Meg and Bo from the previous book.
I was waiting for that big “ah-ha” turning-point moment that she wrote in her previous books, but this one never really had that. There was one slight controversial character that tried to throw a curveball at Celia and Ty’s relationship, but even then it never became that strong of a storyline because it was predictable.
Overall it’s a story based on trust and mistrust, the difficulty of forgiveness and bitterness that can go along with that. Ultimately, it’s a story of redemption and freedom.
I can’t wait for the third book in this series, you’ve just got to love those Porter men!
