Hand Me Down Husband, by Rosanna Huffman

I enjoyed this novel very much. As a Christian novel I was interested to see how the author would handle the subject of a young woman of 37 years of age who had never been married now being faced with maybe finding the love of her life, but in a man 17 years her senior. That is quite an age difference and even more interesting since Mitchell Sanderson's children would be contemporaries of Suzanne Bloomer. How would they take their fathers interest in a younger woman.

So there are several topics the novel covers that I think are handled very well and they are:

1. How does a single adult survive in a church of married couples with lots of children, where the pastor seems to forget when he preaches that he has single adults as part of the mix?
2. How does a young woman contend with the memories of being bullied by other teenagers because she was a bit outside the realm of the popular group?
3. How does a young woman set behind her the non-loving environment of her home upbringing?
4. What about Christian School Teachers at Private Christian Schools and the paltry salaries they are paid. How does a gifted single adult woman teacher survive on that salary and what about retirement?
5. What about eating disorders? Suzanne is very petite and some would call her skinny, that drives her nuts, does she or does she not have an eating disorder?
6. What about the fact that Christian couples take advantage of a single woman in her thirties when it comes to baby sitting, assuming that the "old maid school teacher" should do it for no pay?
7. What about re-marriage for a man who has lost his wife to cancer? But more than that, what should he do when he is attracted to a woman 17 years his younger?
8. How will grown adult children of Mitch Sanderson deal with their fathers growing attraction to Suzanne Bloomer?

These and many other subjects are really at the heart of the book. Suzanne has always wanted to be married, she has always wanted to have children of her own, but at no time in her life, so far, has the opportunity come about that she could marry.

It hurts her very much that her best friend takes great joy in telling her all about her children and all about her desire to have more and how being pregnant is so great. Then comes mother's day and Suzanne is beat up by the sermon and the desire of others to have her babysit so that husbands can take their wives out to dinner.

I thought the book handle all these situations really well, taught good Biblical lessons and wove a good romantic story into the mix.

I'm sure you will enjoy reading about a rich older farmer who comes into the life of a thirty something (almost 40) old maid teacher who is poorer than dirt.

Enjoy!