Love Finds You in Sun Valley, Idaho Book

I can't write an impersonal review of this book, so if you're looking for a strictly objective response piece I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere.

So here it goes.

I spent six years living in Idaho, and outside of finding my best friend there I have next to nothing positive to say about that place. Maybe "it's pretty," however I just associate so much ostracization, control, manipulation, and shaming with the place that I could never really appreciate the area as even beautiful.

The male lead in Finding Love in Sun Valley, Idaho, Tracen, reminded me of everything I disliked about the men I met in Idaho. The "women should be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen" men who felt entitled to a woman. This in turn reminded me of how the women I met in Idaho seemed to hinge their entire life upon marriage hoping to just be fortunate to marry even if it wouldn't be a "happy" marriage. Because marriage and children were the ultimate sign that you'd made it. What was worse was that there was this mentality absolutely everywhere that, "Well, men will be men," and women just needed to deal with it and that was life. When I was in Idaho, this mindset was justified as "just how it is," never as demeaning and wrong.

Which brings me to the heroine, Emily Van Arsdale, actress and stuntwoman famous for her role as Wonder Woman. Emily is a strong woman--physically, emotionally, spiritually. I wouldn't say she's "perfect," as she is a bit naive. Her strength isn't "kick the guy to the ground," but instead a confidence of who she is and what she does and why she does it without any need to justify it to anyone. She's strong in her faith as a Christian. She isn't preachy, she isn't a snob, she isn't entitled. She has an absolutely overflowing love for people.

I found this an interesting combination, but was still cynical. Why? Because given what I knew about Idaho and how very Idaho Tracen was written, I figured it would have a tone of her learning to give up herself for the sake of the man (like I said, this book was intensely personal for me and it was very hard/impossible to separate myself from the personal and the book).

But instead, this book went to five stars. Emily doesn't compromise her strength for the sake of her man, but neither does she completely toss him to the wind as a country hick or as too [insert imperfection here] for her. She chooses to take care of herself and avoid a toxic situation when it comes up--while also having the heartbreak that came with the difficult decision--and Tracen, to my astonishment, is eventually counseled over what an ass he's being to prioritize a place over a person.

While to some people Finding Love in Sun Valley, Idaho may just be another romance novel (a genre that I'm also not a huge fan of), for me it ended up being a validating catharsis for the hurt and frustration I watched go on for the six years of living in North Idaho. But instead of it just validating the hurt, it offered a hopeful glimmer that it's possible to grow out of entitlement and to change. To learn to value and love people as people even if it goes against a cultural norm. That it's okay to love after being deeply hurt, because no one is perfect and there will always misunderstandings and selfishness and just because culture may validate it (which NO ONE in the book did, just fyi), it doesn't make it right.

I look forward to ordering a copy of this book upon its release and placing it on my shelf of books that have helped me understand some of my own pain and frustrations. But instead of ending on a sense of confusion, Finding Love in Sun Valley, Idaho gave me a sense of closure that I didn't expect to possibly ever receive. And for that reason, I give it five stars, and offer my gratitude to the author.