Erin Elise Kiu’s new novel One Transforming Love tells the story of Aubrey, a manager in her twenties who works in public accounting who has decided that it is time to stop looking in the wrong places for love and discover the purpose of 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 her past mistakes. Although she was raised in a Christian family, Aubrey never listened in church or understood 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 God’s plans for her.
Two things happen to Aubrey shortly after moving to San Diego. She begins going to church and talking to her Christian friend, Tina, about God, and meets Jake, an attractive man who lives on the beach not far from her.
Aubrey and Jake begin to see each other and she is very attracted to him. Although Jake is eight years older than her, Aubrey enjoys their company and feels that they could be a good match. She is understanding when Jake explains that he is getting divorced and is willing to believe that he might be ready for a serious relationship once he stops divorcing. Like her, Jake obviously wants to start over and Aubrey is willing to give it a go. After all, Aubrey has made her own mistakes, getting into trouble as a result of drinking too much at a work party that led to her parole.
Unhappy in her job and in her 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 the right thing, the more it seems that the people around her want to mislead her.
I won’t reveal more of Aubrey’s story, although I will tell readers that this novel has an unexpected happy ending that manages to avoid all the cliches. Throughout the book, I encouraged Aubrey to find love and felt sorry for her when she made a mistake or things didn’t turn out the way she wanted, and was inspired by how she never gave up. Her final decision to turn things over to God and let him find 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 preaching or cheesy. Instead, it describes a situation many young people go through as they try to navigate their lives amidst 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. He didn’t need any more partiers in his life, but he didn’t know what he needed.” The purpose of the novel is to explore what Aubrey needs and lead her to answers that can be as surprising to the reader as they are to Aubrey.
The novel is based on solid Christian teaching, and Kiu plants several resources for the reader in it in the form of books that Aubrey reads or blogs that he visits. The story describes a modern version of the Christian’s journey that is surprisingly not that different from the journeys of Christians in biblical times who tried not to get carried away by the ways of the world as they sought to follow Christ.
I think One Transforming Love is a novel that anyone can relate to. It’s perfect especially for the thirty-something teenage 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 other God-seeking people who need to know that they do not have to live a life that consists of drinking and dating men who will not marry them. In these pages, they will not only have fun with the story, but will find solutions to their own spiritual dilemmas.