I’m catching up on my Summer Reading Thing reviews today, and we’ll be back on the website reviews soon!

I won this book in a drawing at my bookstore in March, and now I’ve finally gotten around to reading it. In Having Hope by Terri Ferran, Kit Matthews has the guy of her dreams—but she wants to do something to contribute to the world. When she finds out about an opportunity to work with orphans in Romania, Kit feels like she should go, even though everything seems to be conspiring against her going. But once she’s in Romania, things get worse. Her parents decide to get a divorce, she’s far from her home and boyfriend, and a handsome Romanian starts pursuing her.

I loved the section in Romania although overall, the picture of the Romanian people didn’t always come off as flattering. But “experiencing” a new culture was fun, especially since I’ve known a few Romanians. I laughed out loud at some of their encounters in this book, and their experiences kept me turning pages.

However, I didn’t find the end of the book satisfying. Ultimately, I think that I didn’t see the character change enough. Yeah, she’d been through these neat experiences that could have really changed her life. I wasn’t expecting her to do a 180, but it just seemed like the middle section of the book had no impact on who the character was at the end.

What do you think? How much does a character have to change to make the end of the book satisfying?