Balancing Act
by Emily March
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: November 28, 2023
Reviewed by PJ
Genevieve Prentice is learning that reinventing herself is a bit like downsizing a house. Deciding what to keep and what needs to go gets complicated. After settling into life in Lake in the Clouds, Colorado, with her sister’s help, she’s finally finding her balance. But Genevieve’s newfound steadiness is threatened when her daughter Willow unexpectedly arrives carrying a mountain of emotional baggage.
Willow Eldridge needs a fresh start, but that can’t happen until she comes clean about her family’s secrets. Thankfully, between caring for her two young children and planning her brother’s wedding, Willow has plenty of reasons to delay the uncomfortable heart-to-heart with her mother. Yet when Willow grows close to her kind but standoffish neighbor and suspects he is keeping secrets of his own, she realizes there’s no moving forward without facing what came before…
Can Genevieve and Willow jettison the pain of the past to create the future they so desperately crave? Beneath the crystal blue skies of Lake in the Clouds, anything seems possible.
PJ's Thoughts:
I've been reading this author for almost thirty years, first as historical romance author Geralyn Dawson and more recently as Emily March. Never has she failed to give me a story I could happily immerse myself into. Her current series, as the Eternity Springs books that preceded it, brings all the feelings and I am here for them.
March excels at creating family connections. In this book especially, I love how we see the stories unfold from the perspective of multiple generations. It was easy for me to connect with Genevieve, a widow of a certain age struggling to find her identity now that her children are adults and on their own. But March makes it equally easy to relate to Willow, a young single mother dealing with heavy emotional baggage as well as her young son, an inquisitive chatterbox with more worry than a child should have to shoulder. Add in a reclusive - but very hot - neighbor with plenty of emotional baggage of his own, an undeniable chemistry with Willow, and an endearing soft spot for little kids and puppies, and you have the heart-tugging recipe for romance, family, finding one's place, and happily-ever-afters. Not, however, until all of these characters navigate the unexpected obstacles life has chosen to place in their way.
Those obstacles are one of the things I enjoy about March's writing. Her characters' journeys have real, relatable layers as do the characters themselves. We're only two books into this new series but I'm already wholly invested in them and their well being. I'm eager to watch Genevieve find her footing...and her joy. I'm curious to discover what life has in store for her two remaining single children. And I'm wondering just what role neighboring rancher, Gage will play in it all.
For maximum enjoyment, I strongly recommend reading book one in this series, The Getaway, followed by Balancing Act.
