Review & Giveaway - - Look on the Bright Side

Look on the Bright Side

by Kristan Higgins

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: May 28, 2024

Reviewed by PJ

Lark Smith has always had a plan for her life: find a fantastic guy, create a marriage as blissful as her parents’, pop out a couple of kids and build a rewarding career as an oncologist.

Things aren’t going so well.

For one, the guy didn’t work out. Theoretically, she’d love to find someone else, but it hasn’t happened. Two, she’s just been transferred out of oncology for being too emotional. (Is it her fault she’s a weeper?) Three, her parents just split up.

Deviating from the plan was…well, not in the plan. A potential solution comes from the foul-tempered and renowned surgeon Lorenzo Santini (aka Dr. Satan). He needs a date this summer for his sister’s wedding. His ancient Noni wants to see him settled. In exchange, he could make a few introductions and maybe get Lark back into the field of her choice.

As a sucker for old people and fake relationships, Lark agrees. Teeny problem—she instantly falls for his big, warm family. Especially his estranged brother.

Meanwhile, Lark’s mom has moved in with Lark’s colorful landlady, Joy, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. The three women have a long summer and a big beautiful house on the ocean to figure out what’s next…and quite possibly learn that the best things in life aren’t planned at all.

PJ's Thoughts:

A Kristan Higgins book is guaranteed to touch all of my emotions and Look on the Bright Side certainly did that. First of all, how did I not know the Smith family (from last year's A Little Ray of Sunshine-read my review) would also be at the center of Look on the Bright Side? It was like walking into a room and being greeted by old friends, complete with hugs, huge smiles, and snide asides (every family has one). 

Three women, with intersecting storylines, all at a significant crossroads in her life, are at the heart of this book. Funny, sympathetic, flawed women reeling from grief and betrayal, questioning their life choices. In other words, relatable women. Real. Higgins skillfully guides them along their journeys, giving them opportunities to grow, discover new pathways, repair broken relationships, and heal their hearts. Maybe, even fall in love, repair a broken love, or discover the beauty of friendship. Higgins then surrounds them with a rich supporting cast who are much more than a character backdrop, offering up heartache and hilarity. *I feel compelled to add a reader warning here. Do not read Chapter 11 while consuming liquids or with a full bladder. You can thank me later.

How could I not toss my schedule out the window and spend an entire day losing myself in this story, in these characters? I couldn't resist. That's exactly what I did, sobbing on one page, snort laughing on the next, sighing with delight, then off to the races again until I emerged, grinning and heart happy, ready to go back to page one and do it all over again. That's the brilliance of Kristan Higgins. It's what she does. Every. Single. Time.

I should note that you don't need to have read A Little Ray of Sunshine to enjoy Look on the Bright Side though it will give you additional insight into some of the characters if you have. I enthusiastically recommend both books, in whichever order you choose to read them. 

Content Warning: death, cancer, emotional affair

Do you enjoy a book that takes you on an emotional journey but also makes you laugh out loud?

Have you read Kristan Higgins?

What books are on your summer must-read list?

One randomly chosen person posting a comment no later than 11:00, June 10 will receive a print copy of Look on the Bright Side.

*U.S. only

*Must be 18

*Anonymous comments must include a name or email address to be entered in the giveaway.

Tour Review - - A Little Ray of Sunshine

A Little Ray of Sunshine

by Kristan Higgins

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: June 6, 2023

Reviewed by PJ

A kid walks into your bookstore and… Guess what? He’s your son. The one you put up for adoption eighteen years ago. The one you never told anyone about. Surprise!
 
And a huge surprise it is.
 
It’s a huge surprise to his adoptive mother, Monica, who thought she had a close relationship with Matthew, her nearly adult son. But apparently, he felt the need to secretly arrange a vacation to Cape Cod for the summer so he could meet his birth mother…without a word to either her or his dad.
 
It’s also a surprise— to say the least—to Harlow, the woman who secretly placed her baby for adoption so many years ago. She’s spent the years since then building a quiet life. She runs a bookstore with her grandfather, hangs out with her four younger siblings and is more or less happily single, though she can’t help gravitating toward Grady Byrne, her old friend from high school. He’s moved back to town, three-year-old daughter in tow, no wife in the picture. But she’s always figured her life had to be child-free, so that complicates things.
 
When Matthew walks into Harlow’s store, she faints. Monica panics. And all their assumptions—about what being a parent really means—explode. This summer will be full of more surprises as both their families are redefined…and as both women learn that for them, there’s no limit to a mother’s love.

PJ's Thoughts:

By the 8% mark of this book, I was already crying. By 30%, I had snort laughed more than once. By the last page I would have done both many more times as well as reading numerous passages out loud to my family. I'm pretty sure we had reached the point where one more "OMG, you have to hear this one!" would have seen me kicked to the curb. But that's the risk - and the fun - of a Kristan Higgins novel. 

Higgins has the gift of creating fully-dimensional, multi-layered, frequently flawed characters to whom we readers can relate, whether we've walked in their shoes or not. In this novel, there are many from whom to choose: a biological mother, an adoptive mother, assorted family members (both male and female), teens, friends, children, and a potential love interest. Many have essential roles in the journeys of the main characters, all experience some type of growth or evolution, and all of them elicited an emotional response, positive or negative, or in some cases, both. 

The storytelling in this book is spellbinding, drawing me in from the first pages and then immersing me into the lives of these characters. The chapters are told in alternating points of view, giving insight into the joys, fears, anguish, and perspective from the views of both Harlow and Monica, as well as other characters. It deepened the emotional investment that grew exponentially within me with each completed chapter. My heart ached for both Harlow and Monica, especially after reading the flashback chapters that showed the bond of love not only between each of them and Matthew, the child Harlow birthed and Monica adopted, but between the two women as well and how that bond was tested with Matthew's actions in the weeks leading up to his eighteenth birthday and beyond. 

Along with the setting, which, let's face it, is a character in itself, Higgins also brought these characters to life on the pages of her book, giving them unique qualities that helped move the story forward. No character - primary or secondary - is left behind in a Higgins book. Even if their contribution is minimal, they still receive care and thought in their creation. Grandpop was a particular favorite. I fell hard for Grady. Rosie is the kind of friend we all deserve. Matthew carried all the complex emotions of a teenage boy, amplified by his adoption situation (it's clear Higgins has personal experience with the teen male species). Even nasty cousin Cynthia had a few unexpected surprises in store. By the end of the book, they were all real to me - no longer fictional characters on paper. I knew them. I wanted the best for them. All of them. I wanted to offer hugs when needed, applaud Harlow for the decisions she made, join her trivia team, hang out with Grandpop, visit her bookstore, and celebrate how far she'd come. How far they'd all come. With a smile and a tear, I closed this book secure in the knowledge that Harlow had forged the emotional fires of her life and emerged stronger; that, finally, she had put her past behind her and was ready to move forward to a new chapter filled with happiness and sunshine. 

A Little Ray of Sunshine is an emotional experience like only Kristan Higgins can create...and I wouldn't have it any other way. It has my enthusiastic recommendation. 

Tour Review & Giveaway - - Life and Other Inconveniences

Life and Other Inconveniences
by Kristan Higgins
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: August 6, 2019
Reviewed by PJ
 

Emma London never thought she had anything in common with her grandmother Genevieve London. The regal old woman came from wealthy and bluest-blood New England stock, but that didn't protect her from life's cruelest blows: the disappearance of Genevieve's young son, followed by the premature death of her husband. But Genevieve rose from those ashes of grief and built a fashion empire that was respected the world over, even when it meant neglecting her other son.

When Emma's own mother died, her father abandoned her on his mother's doorstep. Genevieve took Emma in and reluctantly raised her--until Emma got pregnant her senior year of high school. Genevieve kicked her out with nothing but the clothes on her back...but Emma took with her the most important London possession: the strength not just to survive but to thrive. And indeed, Emma has built a wonderful life for herself and her teenage daughter, Riley. 

So what is Emma to do when Genevieve does the one thing Emma never expected of her and, after not speaking to her for nearly two decades, calls and asks for help?

My thoughts:

Talk about an emotional wringer. Kristan Higgins ripped my heart open and dragged out just about every possible emotion with this story. Fear, anguish, anger, betrayal, hope, affection, acceptance and, finally, forgiveness and love. By the time I got to the last page I felt like a limp dish rag. This is not a book I'll be re-reading. But it's a book I'm very glad I read. 

These characters, and what they endure, are vividly portrayed in heart-wrenching detail. Some of the things that happen to them haunt me still. But it's not all sadness and angst. Higgins' well-known humor and compassion are woven throughout this powerful story that also includes emotional growth for several characters, forgiveness of past wrongs, reconciliation, redemption, a heart-wrenching mystery solved, and reason to believe in a happy future, with a worthy love, for Emma. 

The characters are flawed, not all likeable, but all memorable. Higgins has a gift for writing this type of character and imbuing them with the complex, human characteristics, both good and bad, that make them leap from the pages of her books and into my heart. Characters that make me care about them, even when I don't much like them and those who snuggle into my affections and remain there. She doesn't give them easy paths but she helps them look within and discover the strength, determination, and unconditional love necessary to find forgiveness, to choose happiness, and to fight for the happiness and well-being of those who hold their hearts. 

This is a powerful tale of the ways people respond to the heartaches and challenges life throws in their way and how those responses chart the course of their lives and relationships. Keep the tissues handy. You'll need them. 


Do you enjoy women's fiction novels?

Tell me about the last book that made you cry. 

One randomly chosen person will receive a mass market paperback copy of Good Luck With That from the publisher. (U.S. addresses only)

Review - - Now That You Mention It

Now That You Mention It

By Kristan Higgins

Publisher: Harlequin / HQN

Release Date: December 26, 2017

Reviewed by Janga

 

Nora Stuart grew up on Scupper Island, a small, isolated community off the coast of Maine. When her father left, her mother became busier and more distant, and her younger sister changed into a person Nora no longer knew. Awkward and overweight, Nora found adolescence a nightmare of loneliness and otherness made more painful by the taunts of Luke Fletcher, the island’s golden boy and Nora’s chief rival for the coveted Tufts scholarship. The scholarship, which provided generously for the recipient beyond the usual perks of tuition and board is Nora’s way off the island and into a normal life. Her win is not popular with the natives, but Nora leaves the island immediately. For fifteen years, she has been busy creating a new, fulfilling life. She is now a gastroenterologist on staff at a Boston hospital. Her life may not be perfect, but it is far removed in every way from her past. Then Nora is struck by a van, and everything changes.

Nora ends up in the ER of her own hospital. She is convinced that she is dying, but instead of angelic voices she hears her significant other, an ER physician, letting an attending nurse know that he deems Nora not so significant after all and is interested in whatever the nurse has to offer. Emotionally vulnerable for a variety of reasons, Nora’s best choice for recovery seems to be to return to the island, and so she does, along with Boomer the Bernese Mountain Dog whose custody she must now share with her ex.

On Scupper Island, Nora finds her mother, who adores her pet bird and offers “hug therapy”—for a price—to those in need but whose mothering is minimal at best; her niece Poe in the throes of adolescent angst and rebellion, complete with Goth costuming and an attitude that almost hides her pain over her mother’s imprisonment and her own displacement; and Audrey, a sweet-natured teen who reminds Nora of herself but whose pain is as real as Poe’s. There are also old friends eager to renew connections and old enemies who have forgiven nothing. Nora will forge new relationships, uncover unexpected truths about herself and others, and find that life as a Mainer may just offer more benefits than she ever expected, especially since it includes her own personal beta hero with a sense of humor, a sense of honor, and a sense of who he is and where he belongs.

Kristan Higgins has done it again! She has written a book that made me laugh, made me cry, and made me think—this time about all the truths people hide from one another. The romantic element is strong and satisfying, but this book is a women’s fiction novel. It is Nora’s story, and the reader shares her journey in all its complexity, confusion, readjustment, and reconnection. I loved Nora, who is as smart and real and contradictory and as huge a mix of strengths and flaws and uncharted bits as the most interesting women I know. The secondary characters, by and large, are also interesting, appealing characters. I did think the “villains” were rather one-dimensional, but that is a small complaint about a book that has keeper written on every page.

Higgins’s next book, Good Luck with That (August 7, 2018) sounds like a standalone.  I expect it to be another winner, but I hope Higgins will return to Scupper Island at some point. I sense some untold stories there that I would love to read. In the meantime, reading Now That You Mention It is a wonderful way to end 2017 or begin 2018. I give it my most enthusiastic recommendation.

Review - - On Second Thought

On Second Thought

By Kristan Higgins

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: January 31, 2017

Kate O’Leary, a professional photographer, is pushing forty with little expectation of finding a man she wants to date, much less marry, when she meets Nathan Coburn, a divorced architect at a wedding. Six months later, after a rather old-fashioned courtship, they are married. Life with Nathan is so close to perfect that Kate can hardly believe it is real. The only flaw is that, although both she and Nathan are eager to have a child, Kate is not yet pregnant. They have been married four months when their idyll ends. Nathan dies as the result of a freak fall at a party.

Kate’s half-sister Ainsley once had a successful career in television, but it evaporated amid a scandal. Currently, she works for a regional magazine where her abilities are underutilized. Ainsley believes that Eric Fisher, her boyfriend of eleven years, is on the verge of asking her to marry him. She has been in love with him since they were college students, she supported him through his battle with testicular cancer, and she enjoys a close, loving relationship with his parents. It is at a party celebrating Eric’s being declared cancer-free that Nathan’s accident occurs.

Kate and Ainsley have never had a close relationship, but Ainsley is at her sister’s side during the days after Nathan’s death. When shortly afterwards, Eric dumps Ainsley in a very public, humiliating manner, Kate opens her home to her sister. Both women are devastated by their losses, but as they deal with the changes in their lives, they grow as individuals and as sisters, sharing their lives as they never did growing up and discovering the jealousies and misperceptions that limited their relationship.

Both sisters discover they are stronger than they knew. Even broken hearts heal, and love can be found in unexpected ways. Kate finds a friend in a familiar face from her old Brooklyn neighborhood. Daniel Breton, aka Daniel the Hot Firefighter, proves that he is more than a pretty face and a swoon-inducing body. Jonathan Kent, Ainsley’s grumpy boss, proves that he is more than a wealthy magazine publisher and professional grouch.

Higgins returns to Cambry-on-Hudson, the setting of her earlier foray into women’s fiction, If You Only Knew (2015), for another tale of two sisters and their relationship with each other, with family members, and with the men in their lives. Although setting is the primary link between the two books, fans of the earlier book will doubtless be pleased to see Jenny and Leo make an appearance in this one.

The talented Higgins is at her best as she alternates point of view between Kate and Ainsley, allowing readers to understand these flawed, likable, complex characters. Fans of Higgins know that she is among the best at combining the funny and the poignant, sometimes in the same scene, and she does exactly that with great skill in this book. The wake scene is superb. Higgins captures the sense of unreality, the double-consciousness of being part of the experience but feeling as if you are also observing it, and the minutiae that intrude amid the shattering pain. Any woman who has ever worn Spanx will sympathize with Kate’s need to escape the receiving line with its endless parade of mourners to find a bathroom and get the rolled-up Spanx positioned properly.

Those who have known loss will understand the painful accuracy of these later observations:

It was funny how time is measured after you’ve lost someone. Everything relates back to that second your life swerved. The calendar isn’t measured by the names of the months or seasons anymore, but by those significant dates.”

            . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And every day takes you further from the time he was alive, slicing you with the razor-sharp realization that these days would never be celebrated again. . . . All those dates that held no meaning for anyone on the outside, but were slashed into the hearts of those of us who’d been left behind.

But On Second Thought is not just a book about grief. It is also about surviving and growing and loving. While I give it my highest, most enthusiastic recommendation, I also caution romance readers that this is women’s fiction, not romance. The romantic element is strong, but it is the relationship between the sisters and their individual journeys to self-knowledge and self-acceptance that is the core of the novel. If you like books that evoke a giggle one moment and leave you wiping away a tear the next, I think you will enjoy this book as much as I did. I loved it! It prompted me to start my Best of 2017 list and to hope I don’t have to wait long for the next great read from Kristan Higgins.

~Janga

Review - - Anything for You

Anything for You

By Kristan Higgins

Publisher: Harlequin

Release Date: December 29, 2015

Countless romance novels end with a proposal, but this fifth novel in Kristan Higgins’s popular Blue Heron series begins with one. Connor O’Rourke and Jessica Dunn have spent years in an on-again, off-again relationship. Connor believes it is past time they made it permanent, and he is prepared with candlelight and champagne, the perfect ring for his gorgeous Jessica, and the traditional beseeching-male position on one knee. He is not prepared to hear Jessica respond, “Get up, doofus.”  If Jess is saying no to his proposal, then Connor is saying no to them. He will no longer accept their limited, secretive relationship. So the on-again is off-again, permanently this time. Or is it?

“Complicated” might be an understatement when it comes to this relationship. First, Connor and Jessica have a twenty-year history. Connor, a son of privilege, fell in love with Jessica, child of the bottom tier of “trailer trash,” when he was twelve. As if the class differences were not conflict enough for first love, there is the issue of the dog. One day as twelve-year-old Connor and Colleen, his twin (who got her HEA in a reunion romance in Waiting on You, 2014) were riding their bikes, Chico, a pit bull belonging to the Dunns, attacked Connor, mauling him badly. Connor ends up in the hospital with thirty-five stitches, and both he and Colleen, who saw the attack, are traumatized by the event. So is Davey, Jessica’s special-needs younger brother, who can only understand that the dog he loved has been taken away because of Connor. Davey does not understand the danger Connor was in or the combination of Connor’s father’s fury and power. He views Connor as Chico’s killer, and he hates and fears him.

In high school, Jessica is a wild child whose rumored promiscuity leads to her nickname, Jessica Does. But she stays away from Connor. Nevertheless,  from Connor’s perspective, there is an unrecognized bond: “Even so, it felt as if an invisible copper wire connected them, occasionally flaring with electricity and light.” Several years after high school, when Jess’s boss pays for her to take a one-day wine class at the Culinary Institute of America, Connor, in his senior year at the institute, teaches the class. They connect briefly, but the connection is shattered in a heartbreaking moment. Two years later, Connor has returned to Manningsport to open O’Rourke’s with Colleen. Jessica, whose hard work and upward mobility have gone a long way toward redeeming her reputation and improving her self-esteem, forgives Connor and they try again. However, Jessica has assumed responsibility for Davey, and Davey’s hysterical reaction to Connor convinces her that Davey and Connor cannot co-exist.

The pattern is set. They reunite for weeks or months, but each time some emergency in Jessica’s life signals that it is time to break-up. But Davey is as much excuse as reason. The truth is that Jessica does not trust Connor’s love for her. She believes that she herself is the only person on whom she can depend. Until she can conquer her fears and believe in Connor and her own self-worth, she can never find the life of which she dreams.

I’m not generally a fan of this kind of up and down romance, but Kristan Higgins can sell me on most any story line. Connor, of course, is an easy sale. He not only rivals movie hunks in the looks department, but he also loves his mother and sisters, cooks like a dream, and possesses a wicked sense of humor and superior nurturing skills. Granted he can be insensitive at times, perhaps verging on the downright stupid at least once, but who wants a perfect hero? Prickly Jessica may be more difficult to like, but rather than feeling irritated with her inability to trust Connor and commit to him, I felt sympathy for her. Higgins shows the reader why Jess is so reluctant to believe in Connor’s love and why she clings to her pride and determination to save herself with help from no one. There are too many poignant moments to list, but Jess’s vulnerability when she admits to herself how weary she is of the burden of her past left me misty-eyed: “She was so tired of being Jessica Does. So tired of being afraid and alone and taking care of everything all the time. She just wanted to be. To be normal, to be happy, to be light.”

In addition to the leads, Davey is an unforgettable character. Higgins does a superb job of capturing his limitations, his stubbornness, his volatility, and the toll his care takes on Jessica, emotionally, physically, and financially. But she also shows his capacity for love and the eternal childlikeness that make him endearing. The reader understands that Jessica’s feelings for her brother may include guilt, but her love for him is her primary motivation. For several reasons, I thought some of the most touching moments in the novel occurred during Connor’s efforts to establish a relationship with Davey. It is all the more remarkable that Higgins can weave this story with some painfully real dark threads without neglecting her trademark humor.

Higgins is one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of contemporary romance, and this is one of the best books in an extraordinary series—equally heart-wrenching and heartwarming. It made me cry; it made me laugh; it made me reorder my top ten romance reads of 2015. I give it my highest recommendation.

 ~Janga

Harlequin Giveaway: Win a Trip to New York City!

How would you like to win a trip to New York City? 

To celebrate the release of IF YOU ONLY KNEW 

by Kristan Higgins, Harlequin is giving away a 

3-night, 4-day trip for two to New York City, 

including air, hotel and $1,000 in spending money! 

Now that's an awesome giveaway and to make it

even more fun, check out this additional

offer from Kristan's September 6th blog:

"Don’t forget: my publisher is sending one of you and a friend to New York City! Four days and three nights at the beautiful Tribeca Grand Hotel (as featured in IF YOU ONLY KNEW!), travel and a thousand bucks to spend! Plus, if you want, I’ll pop down to the city and take you out to dinner. Make sure you’re on my mailing list! Enter on the home page of my website."  

How do you enter, you may ask? 

Just click on the link below and write, in 100 words or less, 

why you need to escape to New York City with a friend. 

Good luck!

Click to enter 

From New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Kristan Higgins comes her much-anticipated new novel, IF YOU ONLY KNEW, a perceptive and touching story—centered on two sisters and the bittersweet summer that changes their lives forever—that displays all the quirky humor and captivating romance that fans have come to expect from the acclaimed creator of the tremendously popular Blue Heron series. 

When wedding dress designer Jenny Tate finds herself holding the baby of her ex-husband and his seemingly perfect new wife, all she can see is the life she had always imagined for them—but one her ex never did…not with Jenny, anyway.

Wanting to distance herself from the constant reminder of what will never be, Jenny decides to swap Manhattan for a brand-new start in an old place…her hometown up the Hudson River where, at the very least, she’ll have the love and support of her sister Rachel’s solid family to embrace her. Rachel believes she has the idyllic life—stay-at-home mom to young triplets and married to the ideal husband…until the day she accidentally discovers that her “perfect” spouse has been sexting and having an affair with a coworker. Devastated and furious, Rachel finds herself frozen—unable to forgive her husband for ruining their perfect life, yet terrified of losing everything they’ve built. Her parents had a “perfect” marriage, after all, and Rachel won’t accept anything less for herself. But Jenny knows something Rachel doesn’t—a secret she’s kept to herself since childhood, but to reveal it might be the last thing the emotionally fragile Rachel needs.

Amid all the emotional pain and drama, with their worlds upended by revelations of lustful affairs and marital indifference, both Jenny and Rachel must rely on each other as they try to make sense of their screwed-up lives. But for any chance at future happiness, they must first come to terms with the truth behind not only their marriages, but themselves, as well.

IF YOU ONLY KNEW 

KRISTAN HIGGINS 

$14.95 U.S./$17.95 CAN. ISBN-13: 978-0-373-78497-4

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author and two-time winner of the Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, Kristan lives with her family in a small Connecticut town that boasts a wonderful library, a great agricultural fair, a really good ice-cream stand and not much else. She is the mother of two lovely kids and the wife of a brave firefighter who is also (perhaps more important) a fantastic cook. Previously a copywriter, Kristan began writing fiction when her children graced her life with simultaneous afternoon naps. Writing, she found, was infinitely more satisfying than folding laundry, and so began her first novel. Kristan holds a BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross, which means she can identify dangling participles, quote many great novels and play a mean game of Scrabble. Kristan is an award-winning baker, devoted fan of the New York Yankees and an avid reader. She and her crew spend as much time as possible at the family home on Cape Cod, where they shiver in the Atlantic, ride bikes, swat horseflies and don’t catch any fish.

Kristan is an award-winning baker, devoted fan of the New York Yankees and an avid reader. She and her crew spend as much time as possible at the family home on Cape Cod, where they shiver in the Atlantic, ride bikes, swat horseflies and don’t catch any fish.

Click here to visit Kristan Higgins' website.

Click here to sign up for Kristan Higgins' newsletter.

Click here to read an excerpt from IF YOU ONLY KNEW.

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Review - - If You Only Knew

If You Only Knew

By Kristan Higgins

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: August 25, 2015

Eighteen months after her divorce from Dr. Owen Takahashi, a plastic surgeon with a social conscience, Jenny Tate is leaving Manhattan where she has enjoyed considerable success as a designer of wedding dresses to return to her hometown, Cambry-on-Hudson. If she had any doubts that her decision to open her own shop where she planned to sell custom-designed wedding gowns was the right choice, they are erased when a baby shower for Owen’s new wife ends with Jenny helping to deliver their baby in the apartment that Jenny once shared with Owen. She needs some distance from the Takahashi family and her role as best friend to her ex and Ana-Sofia, his perfect Peruvian mate. Her shop, Bliss, a great new apartment, and the presence of her sister and nieces in Cambry-on-Hudson are reasons enough to be excited about the move.

Unlike her sister, Rachel Carver’s ambitions never centered on her career, although she enjoyed her work as a graphic designer at a company that made computer games for kids. But Rachel’s dream was always to have a husband, a home, and children. It took some time and in vitro fertilization before the babies came, but now Adam and Rachel have triplet daughters whom they both adore. But life with three preschoolers is demanding and exhausting, so exhausting that Rachel even fell asleep once during sex. Still, she is happy with her life and in love with her husband. When she discovers a sexually explicit photo on her husband’s phone, she buries her questions and accepts his explanation. When she learns later that Adam is engaged in an affair with a colleague, she is hurt and angry.

When a penitent Adam begs for a second chance, Rachel, after considering their years together and Adam’s strengths as a father and provider, agrees to reconcile. But trust once broken is not so easily restored, and Adam’s promises prove to have little substance. While Rachel is examining her choices, uncertain about what is best for her and her children, Jenny is finding joy in a relationship with her sometimes surly, always studly, and definitely mysterious landlord, Leo Killian. But Leo has a full load of baggage, and he is far from ready for the kind of commitment Jenny wants. As both sisters deal with the emotional stress of conflicted relationships and weigh the costs of their choices, they offer one another love and support, emotional and practical.  

In this book, Higgins departs from her usual contemporary romances to give her readers a women’s fiction tale that is as much about the personal journeys of Jenny and Rachel and the bond of sisterhood that unites them as it is about their relationships with the men in their lives. The change in genres does not mean that the qualities Higgins fans love in her books are missing. There is humor here, some great dialog, mother issues and family secrets, and, of course, a loveable dog, but there is also heartbreak, anxiety, and real poignancy.

Quirky Jenny is the kind of character I expect a Higgins heroine to be, and I liked her from the beginning, even when her behavior made me shake my head. I found Rachel less likeable, but to be honest, this may well have been because her story was too close to some family matters about which I have strong opinions. Leo is wounded and in hiding from himself and from life. I found him sympathetic and interesting. Even Adam is more than a one-dimensional jerk, and several other secondary characters add texture and complexity to the story.

If you like Kristan Higgins and women’s fiction, I think you will find this novel well worth reading. Higgins provides a layered treatment of marriage, infidelity, and divorce that includes a look, sometimes probing and sometimes glancing, at half a dozen different relationships. Do be warned, however, that the ending is not the rosy-epilogue, fairy tale finish that some romance readers demand.  I won’t be surprised if Higgins joins authors like Robyn Carr and Susan Mallery in producing a women’s fiction novel periodically along with her contemporary romances. She has proven she has the skills to do it.  With that said, I admit that I will never be as excited about a woman’s fiction novel as I am about the next Blue Heron book that will be published in January 2016. (Connor’s story—yay!)

~Janga

Janga's Most Anticipated Contemporary Romances: July - December 2015

Looking at the wealth of amazing contemporary romance titles available between July 1 and December 31, you would never guess that a “Save the Contemporary” campaign was being waged a few years ago. My 2015 book calendar is so full of contemporary titles that I will likely be reading them into 2016, and every title on that calendar is a book I really want to read. However, even among the stars, some shine more brightly. The following are all books that will move to the front of my TBR queue the minute I download them. Please be advised that the list is heavy on small-town romances (I was a fan before the current trend started) and series titles (I’m an admitted series addict, but in my defense, a substantial majority of 2015 romances are part of a series.)

        Some Like It Scottish (Kilts and Quilts #3), Patience Griffin—July 7

(Also, The Accidental Scots (Kilts and Quilts #4) —December 1*)

Griffin has a knack for creating characters that I find engaging from the opening page. I love the kilts and the quilts. :) And how great to have a contemporary set in Scotland !  I loved Griffin’s first two novels, and I fully expect to enjoy the next two just as much.  I even love the covers. I will probably have read Some Like It Scottish by the time you read this, but right now it is on my download list for next Tuesday. And I’m already anticipating The Accidental Scots.





       Brown-Eyed Girl (Travis Family #4), Lisa Kleypas—August 11

This is my #1 most anticipated contemporary romance. I’ve been waiting six years for Joe’s story. Not only have I preordered it, but I have also cleared my calendar so I can reread Sugar Daddy, Blue-Eyed Devil, and Smooth Talking Stranger and be poised to start Brown-Eyed Girl the second it downloads. I love the Travis family, and I am beyond eager to revisit them. With sentences like the following one from an excerpt, I’m already falling in love: “It seemed the air had turned into champagne, every breath filled with effervescent, free-floating giddiness.

       Fatal Frenzy (Fatal #9), Marie Force—September 15

I started reading Force’s Fatal series back in 2010 and was captivated by the lead characters Washington, D.C. Metro Police Detective Sergeant Sam Holland and Nick Cappuano, friend and chief of staff of Senator John O’Connor. The developing relationship between Sam and Nick is at least as essential to each book as the particular case, and the cast of recurring secondary characters is superb. But it is that relationship that put Force’s series on my auto-buy list. Sam is now Lieutenant Sam Holland and Nick is vice-president of the United States, and they are married. But their relationship continues to be as intriguing as the dead bodies that keep turning up. I can’t wait to see what’s next.       

1    The Comfort of Favorite Things (Hope Springs #5), Alison Kent—September 15

I love the titles of this series so much that I’d probably buy the books for that alone, but I am also hooked on the characters. In the first book (The Second Chance Café), readers meet Tennessee Keller who has lost touch with his brother Dakota and his sister Indiana after a teenage trauma alters all three lives. Ten finds his HEA with Kaylie Flynn and reconnects with Indiana in Book 1, and Indiana gets her HEA with Oliver Gatlin and summons Dakota to Hope Springs in The Sweetness of Honey (Book 3). Finally, in the fifth book, Kent gives us Dakota’s story—and it is a reunion romance! I cannot tell you how eager I am to see Dakota get his HEA.

       Some Kind of Wonderful (Puffin Island #2), Sarah Morgan—September 25

(Christmas Ever After—Puffin Island #3--October 27*)

I didn’t read my first Sarah Morgan book until Sleigh Bells in the Snow (2013), but I knew when I read that first O’Neil Brothers book that all the Morgan raves I had read were deserved. I loved the O’Neils, and First Time in Forever convinced me that the Puffin Island series would be just as great. I’ve been counting the days since then to the release of Some Kind of Wonderful, a reunion story (my favorite) with a sexy bad-boy hero. The following month, the third book in the series will be released. Christmas Ever After pairs a heroine and hero who loathed one another at first sight. What fun it will be to see them fall in love!

       A Winter Wedding (Whiskey Creek #9), Brenda Novak—October 27

The whiskey Creek series started three years ago with When We Touch, a novella in which Kyle Houseman married the wrong sister. The right sister, Olivia Arnold, finds her HEA with Brandon Lucero, Kyle’s stepbrother. Now after eight novels in which Kyle watched his closest friends find their perfect matches, Kyle will get his story. One of the things I’ve loved about this series is that Novak has done some really different things: a hero and heroine from the wrong side of the tracks, a hero dealing with the discovery that his long-time best friend is gay and in love with him, a heroine with what could be a fatal illness, and a heroine just out of prison. This time it’s turning the guy who betrayed the heroine of the first story into the hero. I am really eager to see what Novak does with this one.

       Along the Infinite Sea (Schuyler Sisters #3), Beatriz Williams—November 3

I may be cheating a bit by including this one on this list. It is more women’s fiction than contemporary romance, and since it is set in the 1960s with threads from the World War II era, it is not contemporary in the strictest sense. And the protagonist is pregnant with the child of her married lover. But whatever label fits—or doesn’t—and whatever romance taboos are violated, I am looking forward to this book with the highest expectations. The Secret Life of Violet Grant and Tiny Little Thing, the other books about Schuyler sisters, were winners for me. I love Williams’s treatment of character, her use of the past impinging on the present, and her wonderful prose. I fully expect to love this book too.

       Our Now and Forever (Ardent Springs #2), Terri Osburn—November 10

Terri Osburn has written some of my favorite small-town romances, and I laughed and sighed my way through His First and Last, her first Ardent Springs book. This second one has a runaway bride, a husband seeking reunion, and a marriage trial by celibacy. Now does that not sound irresistible? I don’t even intend to try to resist. I’ve read the teaser, and I have already booked my return ticket to Ardent Springs, Tennessee.

In the interest of full disclosure, Terri Osburn is a friend from the same Eloisa James bulletin board group as Manda Collins and PJ, but rest assured friendship is not my reason for including her book on this list.

       My Kind of Wonderful (Cedar Ridge 2), Jill Shalvis—December 22

I wasn’t sure Jill Shalvis could produce another series that could rival Lucky Harbor in my estimation, but Second Chance Summer left me fathoms deep in love with the Kincaid Brothers and eager for more books in the series. This second book is Hudson’s story, and his heroine is not the lingering kind. Count me in. (And just in case you are like me and enjoy anticipating well ahead of publication, Jacob’s book, Nobody But You, will be released March 29, 2016.)

      Anything for You (Blue Heron #5). Kristan Higgins—December 29

If Kristan Higgins puts her name on the cover, you can be sure I am going to read the book. But even among all my Higgins keepers, her Blue Heron books rank an extra star. I love this series. These are books that I’m ready to reread as soon as I finish them. And this one is Connor O’Rourke’s book—and Jessica Dunn is saying no to his proposal! It sounds like Higgins is giving me a perfect way to end my 2015 reading year.

*These books added to the ten make the full dozen.