Erin Elise Kiu’s new novel One Transforming Love tells the story of Aubrey, a late-twenties manager working in public accounting who has decided it’s time to stop looking for love in all the wrong places and discover her life purpose. Aubrey has recently moved to San Diego from Chicago, and she is hoping to find a decent boyfriend and new friends, as well as move on from her past mistakes. Although raised in a Christian family, Aubrey never really listened in church or understood about the concept of what God was calling her to do. She let drinking and dating distract her, but now she wants to start over and discover the plans God has for her.
Two things happen for Aubrey soon after she moves to San Diego. She begins going to church and talking to her Christian friend, Tina, about God, and she meets Jake, an attractive man who lives on the beach not far from her.
Aubrey and Jake begin seeing each other, and she feels very attracted to him. Even though Jake is eight years older than her, Aubrey enjoys his company and feels they could be a good match. She is understanding when Jake explains that he’s getting divorced, and she is willing to believe he could be ready for a serious relationship once he moves on from his divorce. Like her, Jake obviously wants to start over and Aubrey is willing to give him a chance. After all, Aubrey has made her own mistakes, having gotten herself into trouble as a result of drinking too much at a work party that led to her probation.
Unhappy in her job and in her past relationships, Aubrey attempts to create a new life for herself, trying to figure out what God wants her to do with her life and how Jake can be a part of that life. However, the more she tries to seek God and do the right thing, the more it seems like the people around her want to lead her astray.
I won’t give away more of Aubrey’s story, though I will tell readers this novel has an unexpected happy ending that manages to avoid all the clichés. Throughout the book, I was cheering Aubrey on to find love and feeling sorry for her when she made a mistake or things didn’t work out how she wanted, and I felt inspired by how she never gave up. Her ultimate decision to turn things over to God and let him find the solutions for her comes realistically as a result of her pain and frustrations.
Author Erin Elise Kiu has created a realistic novel that never falls into preachiness or cheesiness. Instead, she depicts a situation so many young people go through as they try to navigate their lives amid the conflicting messages they receive from society and their peers. In many ways, the novel can be summed up by this one passage: “Aubrey needed more. She didn’t need any more party boys in her life, but she didn’t know what she did need.” The novel’s purpose is to explore what Aubrey needs and lead her to answers that may be as surprising for the reader as for Aubrey.
The novel is based in solid Christian teaching, and Kiu plants in it several resources for the reader in the form of the books Aubrey reads or blogs she visits. The story depicts a modern-day version of the Christian’s journey which is surprisingly not that different from the journeys of Christians in biblical times who tried not to be drawn into the ways of the world as they sought to follow Christ.
I think One Transforming Love is a novel anyone will be able to relate to. It is perfect especially for the teenage girl to thirty-something woman who is unhappy with her life and wants to find answers to make it more meaningful. It would be a wonderful gift especially for new Christian women and others seeking God who need to know they don’t have to live a life that consists of drinking and dating men who won’t marry them. In these pages, they will not only be entertained by the story but find solutions to their own spiritual dilemmas.
