Erin Elise Kiu’s new novel, One Transforming Love, tells the story of Aubrey, a twenty-something administrator who works in public accounting who has decided it’s time to stop looking for love in all the wrong places and discover the purpose of love. his life. Aubrey recently moved to San Diego from Chicago, and hopes to find a decent boyfriend and new friends, as well as get over the mistakes of her past. Although she was raised in a Christian family, Aubrey never really listened in church or understood the concept of what God was calling her to do. She let her drinking and dating distract her, but now she wants to start over and discover God’s plans for her.
Two things happen to Aubrey shortly after moving to San Diego. She begins going to church and talking with her Christian friend of hers, Tina, about God, and meets Jake, a handsome man who lives on the beach not far from her.
Aubrey and Jake start seeing each other and she finds herself very attracted to him. Although Jake is eight years older than her, Aubrey enjoys her company and feels they could be a good match. She understands when Jake explains that she is getting a divorce, and she is willing to believe that he might be ready for a serious relationship once she gets over her 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 into trouble as a result of drinking too much at a work party that led to her probation.
Unhappy at her job and past relationships, Aubrey tries 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 what is right, the more it seems that the people around her want to lead her away.
I won’t reveal more of Aubrey’s story, though I will tell readers that this novel has an unexpected happy ending that manages to avoid all the clichés. Throughout the book, I was encouraging Aubrey to find love for her and feeling sorry for her when she made a mistake or things didn’t work out the way she wanted, and I was inspired by how she never gave up. Her final decision to turn things over to God and let him find solutions for her realistically comes as a result of her pain and her frustrations.
Author Erin Elise Kiu has crafted a realistic novel that never lapses into preachy or corny. Instead, she describes a situation that many young people go through as they try to navigate their lives amid the mixed messages they receive from society and their peers. In many ways, the novel can be summed up in this passage: “Aubrey needed more. She didn’t need more partiers in her life, but she didn’t know what she needed.” The purpose of the novel is to explore what Aubrey needs and to lead her to answers that may be as surprising to the reader as they are to Aubrey.
The novel is based on strong Christian teaching, and Kiu plants in it various resources for the reader in the form of books Aubrey reads or blogs he visits. The story depicts a modern version of the Christian journey that is surprisingly not so different from the journeys of Christians in Biblical times who tried not to get sucked into the ways of the world as they sought to follow Christ.
I think One Transforming Love is a novel anyone can relate to. It’s perfect, especially for the teen or thirty-something woman who is unhappy with her life and wants to find answers to make it more meaningful. It would make a wonderful gift, especially for new Christian women and other God-seeking people who need to know that 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 history, but will find solutions to their own spiritual dilemmas.