"Unrivaled" by Siri Mitchell

Any new Siri Mitchell release goes straight to my wish list. I was so excited to have the chance to review "Unrivaled," especially since it is set in St. Louis in 1910 and was about rival candy makers. How fun does that sound?

Upon her return from a long tour of Europe, Lucy Kendall is dismayed to find her father in poor health and her mother intent on selling their candy factory. Her dreams of coming home to take the unconventional place of running the business alongside her father are crushed. Determined that all they need is a new candy to bring the market back to their favor, Lucy sets to experimenting in the kitchen even as her mother is reintroducing her to society, intent on helping Lucy catch a suitable suitor.

Charlie Clarke is summoned to St. Louis by a long-estranged father. Now the successful businessman, Mr. Clarke wants to make up for his years of absense by training Charlie in the ways of the candy business. Charlie has had a hard upbringing in Chicago's south side, having to take care of his mother and sisters in whatever way possible. Charlie feels ridiculously out of place in the upper crust of St. Louis society... about as out of place as the lovely Miss Kendall. Lucy and Charlie strike up a friendship without knowing that it is his father that is about to put her father out of business. When the identities of their families are discovered, Lucy turns the tables and tries everything she can think of to disrupt Standard Manufacturing and promote City Confectionary. But Standard always seems to have a response before her actions even fall into place. Who is spying on Lucy and sharing her schemes with the enemy?

Determined beyond anything else to save City Confectionary, Lucy finds herself being courted by one of the most eligible bachelors in town. Marriage to Alfred Arthur would be the perfect solution to everything. Everything except her renegade heart.

For some reason, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I was hoping to. Lucy was just not a very nice person. While the fact that Charlie's past and Lucy's propensity towards sabotage were part of the theme that we can never measure up and need God's grace, I thought the spiritual follow-through was very poor. It seemed like the characters were still trying to be good enough on their own by the end. It would have been nice to see a better resolution on this, or to have characters in the first place whom I could more fully get behind. I felt this a rare miss for Mitchell, and already anticipate her upcoming 2014 release!

I received my copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.