Monday Morning JOY by Tia McCollors

Rae Stevens' life might as well be a front page headline after a popular local sportscaster abruptly ends their engagement. Now, due to a staff shortage at the newspaper she works for, Rae is assigned to write a feature on baseball standout Malachi Burke, renowned as a womanizer and party man. She plans to write a quick and uninvolved story and then leave Malachi and everything he represents in the rearview mirror. Malachi Burke has never been so intrigued by a woman as he is by Rae Stevens. From the first day they met, he knew there was something different about her. For three months, he's worked to put his life in right standing with God and leave his past behind. But it resurfaces when his former girlfriend Alexandria shows up to claim what's hers. He doesn't mind that Alexandria doesn't like the person he's become, but he wants Rae to know him for more than the person he's been.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Tia McCollors used to dream of being a television news anchor, but her destiny led her behind the pages instead of in front of the camera. After she spent ten years in the public relations industry, a layoff prompted Tia to discover and pursue a career as a novelist. In addition to being an author, Tia is an inspirational speaker and instructor for writing workshops. She particularly enjoys coaching women of faith, female entrepreneurs, and stay–at–home mothers. A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, she now lives in the Atlanta, Georgia, area with her husband and children. Monday Morning Joy follows Sunday Morning Song and Friday Night Love in Days of Grace, her first series with Whitaker House.

I was blessed with this book by the publisher as well as bookfun.org in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not asked to review the book in a positive light.

My Thoughts:
This book is sweet and relatively to the point. There weren't too many twists and turns or much mystery, but the author kept it upbeat and interesting. Rae is a small town free lance writer as well as a journalist for the local paper. Her latest article, whether she likes it or not, is going to be about one of their small town turned celebrity sports players, Malachi. She is determined to spend the minimal amount of time possible with him, just enough to get her article written.

Malachi grew up in Greensboro, and his Granny is plum proud of him. He has become an all star baseball player with a flourishing career, but due to a recent shoulder injury some time off is much needed. During this break, Malachi has decided to return to his roots and host a few weekend baseball camps for the local kids. Rae's job, to interview him, and write up and article. 
Rae has recently been dumped by a popular sportscaster and is in no way interested in a relationship with a stuck-on himself, womanizing, baseball celebrity. But what she doesn't know is that Malachi, himself, has somewhat sworn off women too, as he is working on restoring his relationship with God and becoming a new man.

What will the future hold for them? Will they hit it off, or just butt heads? And when Malachi's dear ole' grandmother comes up missing, what will happen next?

I found this book interesting enough to keep me reading. It wasn't necessarily fast paced, at least not for me, but the author kept me wondering what would happen next and reading to the last page. I am guessing from the way the book ended there may be more to come in Rae and Malachi's story, so I will be keeping my eye out for another book. This is the first time I have read a book by Tia McCollors, but I do believe my readers would enjoy this book. This book is number three in the Days of Grace series. I do not know if this is a sequential series or if each book is individually written with different people as the main characters, but I had no trouble understanding the book completely without reading any of the previous books.