Something Old, Something New is a pretty, simple romance about two people who find love together in an ordinary small town under ordinary circumstances. The romance is pleasant and entertaining, but lacks enough narrative punch to garner a higher grade.

Christine Sawyer’s busy life in Flowering Grove, North Carolina keeps her hopping. She has opened the Treasure Hunting Antique Mall, and has a busy social calendar. On top of all of that, there are her nieces and nephews to keep abreast of, the children of her fraternal twin sister, Britney. But everything seems to be changing when Britney’s ex comes back to town, pointing out to Christine that she’s neglected her love life something fierce.

Once upon a time, Brent Nicholson was the quarterback to Britney’s head cheerleader, and he had taken their team to state. Unfortunately, an injury ended his pro-football hopes, and he found himself spending his twenties establishing a construction firm. But all of that’s been wiped away thanks to the machinations of his former best friend, and on top of that, he’s now dealing with a harsh break-up. He comes back to Flowering Grove to help his great Aunt Midge clean out her house, and calls in at Christine’s antique mall to help appraise some of her belongings.

As their tenth high school reunion looms, Brent and Christine awaken to the possibility of a brand-new life together. But Britney believes that Brent cheated on her before he left Flowering Grove for college, which causes her to warn Christine that she might not have found the hunk of her dreams after all. Christine vows to stay away from Brent to honor Britney’s feelings, but is what Britney believes the truth?

That self-sacrificing gesture, an attempt to build tension, is one of the reasons I can’t give Something Old, Something New a higher grade. Britney is – allegedly – happily married and has kids, yet she’s clearly still hung up on Brent to a rather creepy degree. I know that being around the ex you (assume) cheated on you might be painful, but she doesn’t actually know if he cheated or not. And again – the girl’s married! Happily! She might be trying to protect her sister from an apparent player, but she hasn’t confirmed he is one! Brent and Christine do a lot of bowing and scraping in their lives; their martyrdom ultimately ends when they realize they must fight for their careers and dreams. But letting a relative dictate your love is, as always, a bad idea.

There’s a lot of family drama going on here, between Brent’s conflict with his dad and Christine’s conflict with Britney. Everything ends with apologies, but sometimes it feels like these side-plots get more shine than the central romance.
As for the book’s faith elements, they are very light, but the romance fulfills all of the ‘clean and wholesome’ parameters. That might be enough for some inspy lovers, but I think they deserve more and better.

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