All My Belongings

Title: All My Belongings

Author: Cynthia Ruchti

Publisher: Abingdon

Genre: Christian Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Inspirational

Source: Own

My Review:

I enjoy Cynthia Ruchti's books. They are well-written and tug on the heartstrings. I love the cover of All My Belongings and appreciate that it is a stand-alone novel.

After Jayne's father is sent to prison for helping her mother die, Jayne struggles with her identity and finding a job. Who wants to hire someone tainted in that way? With the help of a friend Becca Morrow (Jayne), heads to California for a new job. 

Isaac likes Becca from the beginning. She is good for his ailing mother and easy to be around. They develop a solid friendship while she is caring for his mother. However, when tragedy strikes, will their friendship survive?

All My Belongings is plot-driven rather than character driven-the opposite of what I enjoy. Ruchti used a lot of metaphors that had me skim reading in parts, wanting to  get to the point.  There were a lot of good parts, but it was just too wordy in other parts, and it bogged the story down.

I adored Jayne/Becca. She had a messy, complicated family. However, I also felt she harped too much on what her father had done and let it change her identity (not just her name). It made her seem to have too much of a victim mentality. I know I am not describing this well, but the story was a mixed bag for me.

I will continue to read Ruchti's works, as this is my least favorite of what I have read of hers.

★★★/5

Synopsis (Goodreads): 

Jayne Dennagee has spent her life running from the doctor death legacy of her father. His Kervorkian-copycat methods of euthanasia ruined her childhood, covering it in shame. She won t let him steal her future, too. After changing her name to Becka, she assumes a new life and new job caring for the ailing mother of a handsome young businessman, Isaac Hughes. Becka struggles to sort out her feelings for her new boss just as her patient passes away under unusual circumstances. Suddenly, her past catches up with her and the unnerving details of her heritage make Becka look like a murder suspect. Worse, all sense of home and all hope for love vanish.

Even if she could clear her name, a phone call from prison wraps a suffocating shroud around her heart. Her father is out and he needs her help. Can Becka open her new life to the man who has prematurely taken so many? Or will her father s legacy make it impossible to open her heart at all?