Valerie Comer‘s Raspberries and Vinegar releases today (at least, I think it’s today — it’s already shipping from Amazon).  Valerie’s motto is “Where Food and Faith meet Fiction” and it’s spawned a new genre called Farm Lit.  Raspberries and Vinegar is the first in a three book series about three women buying a small farm in Northern Idaho to realize their dream of contributing to local food.  These women would dearly love to have some men in their lives — as long as those men share their values.

This book is Josephine Shaw’s story.  This is a romance, to be precise, A Farm Fresh Romance, (try to keep up with the genres — Christian, local foods, romance), so you know Jo meets the man of her dreams, but she doesn’t believe such a gorgeous guy could be interested in her.  She sees plenty of evidence this isn’t the case (no matter what everyone else can see).  Decisions have consequences, and the entire book illustrates this as Jo and the girls get settled into their new property and begin the long process of realizing their dream.  Zachary Nemesek (the dream guy) has some personal soul-searching to work through as well, and it turns out to be more than he realized it would be (isn’t that the way things work out in real life, too?).

Valerie’s characters lived and breathed on my electronic page, and I was most struck with how she illustrated the challenges of faith.  I’m not talking about the relatively simple faith in God.  Many of us profess that and don’t have any problem with it.  I’m talking about the challenges of living in our faith.  Seeking the right thing for us to do and living the Will of God in our daily lives.  That can be a challenging thing to do, and we tend not to do it very gracefully.  Neither do Valerie’s characters.

Zach and Jo weren’t seeking to make choices that would be inherently bad.  That’s what made the book interesting to me.  The choices Zach and Jo were contemplating making might have worked out just fine, but the reader could see (if the characters couldn’t) that some of those choices might not have been the best choice for them to make.  The events that led them to reach the “right” conclusion involved a certain amount of pain, nobody came through the story unscathed (we don’t in real life, either, do we?).

At at least one point in the story, tears rolled down my cheeks, because there was such sadness. Everyone didn’t get a happy ending.  Valerie had a chance to make a villain go away, but that was the easy route, and Valerie took a path more troublesome (which made the book much stronger).  I’d love to say more, but that would be a spoiler, and I don’t want to spoil anything in this book for you.

The main characters are in their mid-to-late twenties.  They are learning life isn’t as “black and white” as they thought it was. Yes, there’s right and wrong, but the realities of life muddy the clarity and reveal more shades of gray (I’m not talking about the hit novel from earlier this year when I mention that, because you will NOT find anything remotely like that in this series).  What seems like it should be a simple decision is more complex. I enjoyed the journey with Jo and Zach and their friends and family as they navigated the twisty paths to establishing their adult selves.  I think you will too.

Here’s a link to Valerie’s book page.  If you go there, you can enter to win a paperback copy of the book (drawing will be held August 15, 2013).  You will find a link to the first chapter.  There’s also a link to Amazon’s page for the paperback and CHOOSE NOW publishing’s page for either an unsigned or a signed and personalized copy (no extra charge!).

I’ve read several of Valerie’s creations.  I’ve loved them all, and this is her best so far.  (If you’re not well-versed in local foods, some of the conversation about that may bother you a little, but whether you like it or not, there’s a lot of truth in what the characters are talking about.)  Read all the way to the end to get the recipe for Raspberry Vinegar.

Valerie will be visiting on the 15th and we’ll “talk” about a few of the things I mentioned above.

* In the spirit of full disclosure, Valerie provided me with an advance electronic copy of the book so I could do a review.