It Happens Every Spring by Gary Chapman and Catherine Palmer

This book is a combination Christian romance/self-help book, I think. Gary Chapman wrote one of my very favorite marriage books ever, "The Five Love Languages", and the principles he introduces in that book are clearly embedded in this one. He wrote this book with author Catherine Palmer as a companion to another marriage book that he wrote, "The Four Seasons of Marriage". It is supposed to illustrate the ideas he introduced in that book. I haven't read that one, but that concept is very obviously placed in this book.

I've read reviewers that felt his messages in this book were heavy handed. I didn't really find it to be so. I read this book more as a story--I was interested in the characters and in what happened to them. It wasn't, however, a life changing or even an instructive book to me. It was just an entertaining story told about likeable people. I especially appreciated how marriage as WORK was portrayed. Marriage isn't always work, of course, but every happy couple who has been married for more than 10 years knows that a happy marriage requires constant upkeep. This was reflected in this book, which I liked.

I mostly read this book because of my love of the "5 Languages" book. Oh, and because it was free. And I liked it. Not life changing, but engaging and uplifting.