“Kate Landry Has a Plan” by Rebekah Millet

 Kate Landry Has a Plan (Bethany House 2025) by Rebekah Millet is a very wonderful, straightforward, Christian romance novel which had me hooked with the first sentence: “A bride’s bouquet arced through the air, targeting me like a deployed missile.”

Kate Landry and her sister opened a cafe, Beignets & Books, in the home they inherited from their grandmother in the heart of New Orleans. They had a solid plan for the future which went awry when her sister and her husband were killed in an accident and Kate was left to carry on alone, determined to honor their shared vision.

Forty years old, Kate is a plucky woman trying to run the business, raise her sister’s orphaned child, stick to her goals, meditate her parents’ different values, and overcome a lingering heartbreak. Then she walks into Micah, a handsome man from her past. Can he persuade her to relinquish feelings that she may still have for the man who jilted her eleven years ago?

(And just so you know, why she can’t get beyond that guy is the question of the day, especially since this is what she remembers about him: “Ryan had kissed like an octopus devouring its prey. All hands and sloppy.”)

Kate’s faith, and her outright, and sometimes inappropriate at the moment, sense of humor had me laughing so hard at some insanely funny parts that I had to read out loud passages to people wherever I was, so they didn’t think I was a lunatic. For instance, when she re-encounters Micah, who was her high school beau:

“He lifted his other hand (no wedding ring) at chest level, drawing my attention to the firm planes beneath his hideous Hawaiian shirt. The years had been good to him. Yup. But not his style. What grown man walked around sporting palm trees and pink flamingos? At least the short sleeves accentuated his biceps. . . .

He crossed his arms, causing one flamingo on his shirt to appear as if it sniffed the butt of another flamingo.”

Kate has tried to settle into a routine life but Hayley, her adopted niece who is thirteen, relentlessly wants a dog. A large parrot has perched in her ancient live oak tree and poops all over the cafe courtyard on a regular basis.  Ryan, the ex, threads through the story like an unbidden ghost roaming the French Quarter: “He could pop up on me unannounced and unwelcomed like a pointy chin hair.” Hayley incessantly plays songs and commercials for animal welfare to the point that Kate can’t get Sarah McLaughlin’s song “Angel” out of her mind.

The characters are well developed and the plot moves along seamlessly coursing through romance, faith, intrigue, humor, self-doubt and self-realization, all reaching toward a most delightfully unexpected ending.

There are lessons taught throughout the story about which we could all use a refresher course. With a business competitor threatening to ruin her dream, her parents lack of support and deception, and finally, a terribly unattractive hairless little dog, Kate’s faith holds her strong. With the help of her friends, she is able to navigate the unevenly paved streets of romance, letting go, and learning to trust her own instincts.

Even though this book stands alone, it is the second in the series, Beignets for Two, and is so delightful that it makes me want to read the first book, Julia Monroe Begins Again.

Rebekah Millet

Rebekah Millet is a Booklist starred review author, as well as a Selah Award, Cascade Award, and ACFW First Impressions Award–winning author of southern inspirational romance novels. A New Orleans native, she grew up on beignets and café au lait, and loves infusing her colorful culture into her stories.