Syrup is wonderful on pancakes and waffles, but when it seeps into a romance, it doesn’t take much for it to become cloying. Andrews’ newest reeks of sweetness to the point that readers may feel as if they are drowning in syrup. This feeling begins with the cover which completely fits the book’s content.

After his wife dies of cancer and their daughter stops speaking, Dr. Matt Graham moves himself, his six-year-old daughter Autumn, and his mother-in-law Gigi who looks after the small family to a Norman Rockwell small Southern town hoping to heal their hearts.

In the center of town one day, they watch Hannah Taylor in the toy shop window as she works setting up a display. When Autumn comments that the woman looks like her mother, Matt is overjoyed that Autumn has finally spoken a full sentence and realizes he has to get to know Hannah.

So begins Autumn’s conversion from a sad, monosyllabic child to a healthy, happy first grader. A breast cancer survivor herself as is her married sister, Hannah is delighted to meet the child and let her help with a miniature model of the town’s business district. Slowly Hannah draws Matt and his family into her Christian church group, luring them with socials and children’s worship classes.

The Christian version of God is everywhere in this book, saying as one little boy puts it, sometimes yes and sometimes no. In other words, God sometimes grants prayers and other times doesn’t. What matters is the deluge of prayers one hurls at Him, not the outcome of those prayers.

Although the subject matter of cancer (breast cancer in particular) is a grim one, the tone of the book is light and frothy, belying the seriousness of the disease and of Autumn’s reaction to her mother’s death. As long as everyone prays, the book tells readers, whether God says yes or no is irrelevant; constant prayer and belief in God are what matter most.

Christian readers whose belief system agrees with this might possibly enjoy Matt and Hannah’s fairytale journey toward love, but those without this firm belief substructure will find the book difficult to digest. Just a little too sweet to take.