Title: Operation Posthaste
Author: Chautona Havig
Major Themes: Friendship, Christian Romance
Synopsis: After discovering a decades-old sack of letters in his attic, nine-year-old Dylan realizes he has to deliver all of them, or potentially face even more loss than he’s already endured so far.
After finishing a longish classic, I was ready for a lighter read. In scrolling through my Kindle’s offerings, I came across Operation Posthaste. I remembered hearing something about it several years ago, and after a bit of deliberation, I decided to try it out, and it ended up being exactly what I needed at the time.
Publisher’s description:
{ Neither rain, nor sleet, nor seventy-five years… }
Brandie Oliver is starting a new life with her son in Elmhurst—one of Rockland’s oldest neighborhoods. It’ll just be the two of them now, and she’s determined to be the best mom possible. Heaven knows she hasn’t been in the past.
Then Dylan starts acting strange. His teacher, the grandson of her matchmaking neighbor, says he is falling behind and sleeps during class. Why, when he nearly passes out at dinner, she can’t understand. Is he sick?
Rudy Vincenzo hasn’t had so much fun in years. He’s finally found a girl his grandson, Jack, can’t seem to resist, Dylan isn’t too cool to talk to an old guy like him, and he’s helping the boy with a secret mission.
Every night, he follows Dylan up and down streets delivering mail—ensuring the boy’s safety. Jack’s worried about him. Brandie’s worried about Dylan, and conveniently, they’re spending all their time trying to figure out what’s going on. Could anything be better?
Operation Posthaste: They must finish the mission before someone catches on.
My thoughts:
I haven’t watched You’ve Got Mail, but as I understand it, this book is loosely inspired by that movie. I loved the mail part of the story—as a big history fan, that part was a lot of fun! Plus, I loved the mentions of Operation Mincemeat in the story; having just read The Man Who Never Was, those mentions felt like meeting an old friend all over again.
Another thing I loved about this book was the combination of two cultures in this story. Although the Latino/Mexican (I can’t remember right now which one it was) side didn’t come through as much, I loved that that was still there. I also loved the peek into Italian culture that this book gives. I mean, a pizza dough that takes three days to reach perfection? I’ve never heard of that before—but it does make me curious!
And then, of course, there are the friendships and romance. I loved the way Rudy took Dylan under his wing, and I also loved watching Rudy and Jack’s relationship as grandfather/grandson. That was great. The romance was too sweet, and I especially appreciated that it felt like the relationship was built on mutual trust, getting to know the other person, and seeking the Lord’s will, rather than solely on attraction and a “Will this make me happy?” attitude.
The faith element in this story was also convicting. I especially appreciated a discussion about why we can sometimes feel like something is missing in our relationship with the Lord, and how sometimes that’s because we’re holding something back from Him. That gave me pause to reflect—I love when Christian fiction does that!
If you’re looking for a mostly lighthearted, easy-to-read story that still has a bit of depth and some strong characters, I’d highly recommend you check out Operation Posthaste. It’s a novella, so a quick read (I almost read the whole thing in one day—if I’d realized I only had one or two chapters left at bedtime, I would have finished them!), but I came away thankful for another solid story from Chautona’s pen, and eager to start my next book by her. I’m thinking Clock Tower Bound is up next; I guess I’ll see which one I actually end up picking up!
WARNING: No warnings, aside from maybe one or two kisses and a 9-year-old hiding something from his mom.
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Ages 15 and Above, Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
