Only Uni Review

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Senior biologist Trish Sakai is trying to reform her ways. She’s ready to stop chasing the men and start chasing God. She develops three rules that she hopes will help keep her on track:

1) Stop looking at all men as possible dates.
2) Tell others about Christ.
3) Persevere in hardship by relying on God.

When she looks to her cousins for support, she is hurt by their unwillingness to believe her reformation is true. Then she starts working with Spencer at work and her old boyfriend won’t leave her alone. When Grandma adds her forceful personality behind the old boyfriend, Trish doesn’t know if she can stand firm anymore.

At its heart, this book is about finding God when we’ve lost our way and what it means to really walk for Him. When we’re recuperating from a stumble or pit, it can be easy to get legalistic and that’s where Trish Sakai finds herself. Why does she suddenly want to get a M. Div? To convince her cousins and God that she is serious about changing her life this time. And her journey of fits and starts challenged me – I can see similar patterns in my life.

The more Trish tries to do the right things the more her life seems to fall apart. Can anyone else relate?!? And this author certainly believes in making everything as hard as possible for her characters.

This book captures the chick lit flair without being locked into Trish’s head. We get to see the world from another character’s view. But Trish’s reactions and effect on other people was refreshing – avoiding some of the traps of chick lit. Spencer is shocked to learn that it’s not clear he’s a Christian from the way he’s living. Other people at her new church beat the stereotypes and occasionally fall into them.

While the book is written in a fun style, it deals with serious issues like living a genuine walk, finding our place to serve, seeking God with our whole hearts, and others. These are real issues, and this book treats them as such.

This book is a wonderful follow-up to the delightful Sushi for One while standing on its own. If you haven’t enjoyed a Camy Tang book yet, this is a great one to start with!