Fools Rush In by Kristan Higgins

Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥♥♥

WANTED: One Kristan Higgins hero. Just one. I only want to meet him. If you know one (or <gasp> have one of your own), I promise I'll give him back. Pinky swear. Just let me meet him.

I'm super serious. I wish I could just meet one of these H's! KH is a MASTER of witty banter. She just keeps you smiling the whole way through. I am really coming around to this 1st person narrative style in a romance novel. I mean, everything feels like a big surprise that's happening to me! And she is so fantastic at dialogue, the reader still manages to catch the pov's of the other characters.

This one is a sweet little twist in the high-school unrequited crush thing.

She: Sweet, friendly, goofy dog-owning doctor who is seriously crushing on her high school love - a beautiful, lovable carpenter who charms everyone in panties. He's obviously wrong, wrong, wrong for her, but she is fixated until she finally opens her eyes to the right guy. 

He: Ex-brother in law (older sister's ex-husband). Small town cop and all round good guy.

Conflict: Obviously, there is the awkwardness of him being her sister's ex-husband. He is wonderful and so is she - they just never look at each other "that way" until one day, they do. It's sweet and nice and makes you feel like that girl who's been trying to get her best friends together like, forever and then when they finally do hook up you're like, finally...

I love how the story has a lot to do with how the h grows as a person - she gets fit, makes a life and a home for herself in the town, and finds a great career - not just that she finds her man. In the story, like in real life, she only finds her real someone when she's figured herself out. 

I wish we had a little more time with the H. Because of the 1st person angle, its hard to get a handle on the H's personality but we are led to believe that he is a wonderful person worthy of the h's adoration. Oh, I believed it alright. At the end of the day, does it even really matter? I mean, after having read ~1,000 romance novels, aren't the H's all basically just the same dude? Tall, handsome, charming, sweet, funny, protective and honorable? Throw in roguish and arrogant for the historical heroes and we basically have the amalgam of the Most Perfect Human Man.

This one is heroically wonderful and nice, and she's sweet and kind - they need to be together. When they are, you're genuinely stoked for them. 

Sidenote - KH has this strange thing for the brother/sister-in-law, best friend, widowed/abandoned hero shtick  But it works, goddammit, she makes it work! I see why she would do it - I don't think its for the "forbidden" angle but more to show closeness and a solid relationship to begin with before layering on the romance. I never thought it would work, and I admit to feeling squeamish at the very beginning but then I too relax and become a steaming, whimpering pile of mush and any hesitancy I may have felt is put firmly to bed. Like the h. Hooyah!