Heather combined great characters with a southern Illinois setting you probably have not have considered for a Roaring 20's historical. Of course, Chicago does have its place in the story too. It's definitely a pager-turner well-worth your time.

Mob rivalries, family drama, strained friendships, sweet romance, even a newfangled snack called the potato chip, Window of Opportunity has plenty of adventure to appeal to a variety of readers. When a gangster’s son (who wants no part of the family business) falls in love with a judge’s virtuous daughter, you know sparks are going to fly but this story is far from that predictable. In fact, a couple of events in the first half of the story took me completely by surprise and kept me invested in turning the pages, waiting to see how it was all going to play out.

With some of my roots being in Southern Illinois, I was immediately drawn to this historical romance set there during the Roaring 20s. It made the based-on-fact events that formed the backdrop for the first half of the story even more interesting to me, knowing that my maternal great-grandparents may have experienced them in real time, or at the very least read about them in the daily newspaper. Even just knowing that my maternal grandparents were small children in this area during the time period of this novel helped me relate to the history on the pages on a different level.

Brendan & Evangeline each endeared themselves quickly to me – separately and together – and I was rooting for them from start to finish. Brendan is the odd man out in his family, not at all interested in living a mobster’s lifestyle or doing his father’s business. He’ll try to keep his brother out of trouble (an impossible task) at Dad’s request, but that’s the extent of his participation in their dealings. Evangeline’s family has raised her to love the Lord and follow His principles (and she also can be a little sassy, which I loved lol), but her best friend Dot is another story – drawn by the glitz and glamour of the era without heeding the emptiness or the consequences of its snares, much like Brendan’s brother. This juxtaposition of the two couples only gets sharper the more time they spend together, and I really appreciated the layers that the author gave these characters. Any one (or more) of the four could have easily become a stereotypical, or cardboard, character for the time period, but Greer wisely weaves enough deeper dimension to keep that from happening for each of them.

The slow-burn romance between Evangeline and Brendan was super sweet and swoony, and I have so much more I want to say about it but I’m trying to be so careful about potential spoilers lol. I so loved the way Brendan loved Evangeline – respecting her and protecting her the best he knew how. This runs deeper the farther we get into the story, and I found myself completely smitten by the scene involving the installation of a certain stained glass window and how beautifully the author related it to their relationship.

Bottom Line: Window of Opportunity by Heather Greer is a sweet romance with intriguing layers and a touching faith thread. Readers will appreciate the history of the Roaring 20s and the ways the author brings it to life on the pages and in the characters. Brendan and Evangeline are very likable protagonists, and I genuinely enjoyed getting to know them and following their journey. I’m very intrigued about where the series will go from here, and I look forward to finding out!

(I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book which I read via Kindle Unlimited.)

first reviewed at Reading Is My SuperPower