Review: A Billion Reasons Why by Kristin Billerbeck

Title: A Billion Reasons Why
Author: Kristin Billerbeck
Format: Paperback
Genre: Christian Chick - Lit
Source: Borrowed from my Sister
Published: February 2011 by Thomas Nelson
My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 1/2

From Goodreads:
He's a handsome billionaire. She's not impressed.

Katie McKenna has never loved any man but one; billionaire Luc DeForges. He was her first love. But there are a billion reasons why she's engaged instead to Dexter Hastings, a solid and stable man who wants the same things she does; marriage and a family but all of the things that she wants without the deep-seeded pain and fear of being abandoned that Luc brings.

Dexter and she have worked an arrangement that's akin to faith without action, love without deeds -- a dead faith. Going home to New Orleans to sing for her childhood friend's wedding, Katie must search her heart to find out if any of her reasons for being with Dexter are stronger than love. Only when Katie steps fully into faith and jumps off the cliff of life into the arms of Luc does she understand the fullness of God's grace.


Let me start by saying I wasn't aware this was Christian Fiction when I began reading it. (When I receive a book from a friend, I don't usually read the back cover. I'm probably an oddball that way.) I probably wouldn't have chosen it as a review-worthy book had I known that - mostly because I don't want to alienate any of my readers. Now, with that said? I loved this book!

This was the first time I've had the pleasure of reading Kristin Billerbeck, and I will definitely be grabbing a few more of her books because I just adored this. I started reading it last night about 6pm, and couldn't put it down! (Lucky for me, my three year old wanted to play in the bathtub for nearly an hour before bed so I could keep reading!) I woke up this morning with about 60 pages left to read in the 299 page novel.


The book starts (after a quick prologue) with Katie McKenna, a Special Education teacher in San Fransisco who is pre-engaged to Dexter who represents a safe and stable life. Yet one that grabs me as extremely boring!

Her ex boyfriend Luc, who happens to be successful, handsome and rich, shows up and begs Katie to return to her native New Orleans with him for his brothers wedding. After refusing, he resorts to bribing her with the ability to get her engagement ring - a family heirloom, and an expensive replica of a Ginger Rogers dress.

In an early scene with Dexter and Luc, it becomes apparent that Katie is marrying Dexter because he is safe (and in my opinion all the wrong reasons!) but she shies away from Luc because of a trauamtic past with him. Unfortunately, we don't get to learn that reason for quite some time.

A trip to Nola sends the reader deep into a colorful world where you fall in love with both Luc and Katie, as well as delve deeper into their background.


Things I Loved:
*The fact that Katie romanticized the 1940's so greatly. (It has been my favorite era since childhood when my Grandma would talk about WWII, my Grandfather and the early years of her marriage.)
*Luc. He was my ideal Hero! His quirky fedora, his obvious chemistry with Katie.
*The backdrop of New Orleans. I have traveled to all 48 of the continental states, and the NOLA region is one of my favorite, the people and the culture have sucked me in! (Not to mention their unique cuisine, of which this book left me craving Crawfish Etouffee!

Things I didn't Like:
*How much Katie let her friend, Eileen, run her life. She really made Katie seem a bit weak and childlike.
*Having to wait until halfway through the book to know exactly what Luc had done to embarrass Katie so much in the past.



All in all, I found this book to be a page turner. I loved the DeForges boys, I loved Katie - when she let her true colors show through! It left me with a craving for creole food, a desire to go swing dancing and a trip to New Orleans! I give "A Billion Reasons Why" ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 1/2