BABY, BABY by Karen Wiesner

Tamara and Robert grew up together and have always been in love. They married right out of high school so Robert worked instead of going to college. Now years and several children later their youngest child is going to school. Tamara has always been a stay-at-mom and loved taking care of her husband and family but now that she has a little extra time on her hands she wants to doing something she loves, making hand woven gift baskets. Even better is that people might be willing to pay for them which would give them some much needed extra money as there oldest son is going to college. Robert has worked at the same place for years and has all the right experience for an upcoming promotion opportunity but he may be passed up because of his lack of a college degree. It has been drilled into him by his father that a man takes care of his family. So when Tamara mentions selling the gift baskets he views it as a threat. Robert thinks that maybe if they had another child Tamara wouldn't be so restless. Can their faith see them through a situation where there seems to be no compromise?

I found this to be quite an interesting tale. In a lot of fiction stories you find the lead couple young and never been married. Not so in this story. This lead couple has been married a number of years and their world is somewhat shifting because their youngest child is now in school. How things had always been were changing. Change can be a scary thing to an insecure person. Robert was insecure. I really liked Robert. He was sweet and loving to Tamara but I felt like he was being unreasonable about Tamara's basket business. Although as you get to know his background you can somewhat understand why he felt that way. Our emotions aren't always reasonable. I liked Tamara as a leading lady. She displayed an inner strength that helped her deal with her husband's issues in the right way. I also liked how this couple was determined to make things work. I think sometimes couples are just too quick to give up. So I appreciated the way they were determined to see it through. Tamara always strove to do the right thing in the right way. In the story there is a male friend who has feelings for Tamara (unbeknownst to her) and he's very supportive to her when her husband is not. She confides in him that Robert isn't happy about her business. I think a valuable point was made in the story that it's not healthy for a married woman to have another man as a confidante. Very wise advice. I enjoyed the way the author allows us to see each of the characters internal struggles which is helpful in understanding why they think the way they do. I enjoyed all the secondary 'family' characters too and look forward to hearing their stories as well. Baby, Baby is the first book in the Family Heirlooms Series. A thank you goes to this author for providing me with this complimentary copy for my review.