Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥♥
First of all, KH is wonderful and amazing and I want to jump up and down every time I read a new book of hers. Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's begin.
He: Chief of Police* of a small upstate NY town. He used to be a bad boy in high school but has shaped up nicely and is now universally loved by everyone in town.
She: Girl who gets jilted at the altar and then leaves her hometown to get away from her ex-fiance and the inevitable gossiping, but also to "find herself". She does manage to rebuild a great life for herself in San Francisco but never quite stops blaming the H, her ex-fiance's best friend, for ruining her wedding to the "perfect man".
Conflict: 1) She has to get over the fact that the H "ruined" her wedding, 2) Will she really move back to her hometown and will the H sack up and ask her to stay?
A few things that I thought were especially great/interesting:
1) Lovely setting - wine country in upstate NY. Lends to the sweet and romantic mood but in KH's hands, avoids being trite. I mean, a vineyard? This could easily have veered off into a horrible morass of sickly sweet grapey-ness - remember a Walk in the Clouds? Oh Keanu, you beautiful dummy.
2) The H was more alpha that KH's usual Hs. Which I hearted greatly.
3) There were some interesting examples of difficult relationships - particularly the one between the h's grandparents. It was very refreshing to see that issue dealt with so well in a romance novel - some (maybe most) relationships are products of circumstance and chance and don't really progress perfectly. It was a good reminder that we are living in a generation that is lucky enough to get to even pursue love and romance for their own sake. All the examples of disastrous relationships also provide good contrast to the main romantic relationship in the book between the h & H.
4) Once again we get to see a KH protagonist have a passion for something other than her man. This h loves the outdoors, nature, and her family's land and legacy. She works as a landscape designer and is good at her job. And she has a dog.
Things that were strange-interesting:
1) The H's name is Levi Cooper... anyone else thinking about a dude in a denim shirt and jeans. Maybe a Lee Cooper shirt and jeans from Levi's?
2) Seemed like the h was angry at the wrong guy the whole time. Surely it was a good thing that the H put an end to her marriage to a TOTALLY wrong guy? Why did she stay so angry with him? She does thank him for it in the end, but seemed like he saved her from a huge disaster up front so her bitterness towards him was extremely misplaced.
That's it...I'm such a KH fan-girl that I can't even think critically anymore...
*There is something about this small-town sheriff/police chief trope that I am really beginning to enjoy. They're alpha but in a different way than a big-city lawyer/detective/biz tycoon is alpha. I guess there is the underlying theme of "caretaking" of the citizenry that automatically shows him to be a father-figure and a man of action and responsibility. Oooo mama. I feel safer just knowing such a man is out there (in my imagination).
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!
Skeptic scale: ♥♥♥♥
Can I just say that I am an unabashed KH fan-girl. The lady can do no wrong in my opinion. She's just a wonderful writer of people. I've noticed that in addition to the main romantic story there are these wonderful references to very diverse and interesting topics - gay rights, adoption, complicated family dynamics, race, diverse cultural backgrounds. Not that she references these heavy-handedly! No sir... it's more just THERE in the background, just happening. Very cool and very interesting.
Also, there's always has a dog. Which is awesome. Sometimes there are cats, which I don't care for, but there's always a dog which lets me stomach the cat stuff better (my apologies to cat people everywhere. I promise I'm not a horrible person. Some of my best friends have cats).
He: Former high school leather-jacketed, motorcycle-riding bad boy and current widower. He falls in love with his wife (the angelic counterpoint to his bad self) in high school but then she dies tragically of cancer and he moves back to his wife's hometown to raise their teenage daughter.
She: One of the uncools who attended the same high school as the H and his wife. She has harbored a terminal crush on the H that whole time. He was fleetingly (distractedly) nice to her but generally ignored her leaving her to nurse her unrequited crush in silent torment.
Conflict: He's unnaturally scared of being a bad father, of having harm come to his daughter, having her taken away from him and wants to avoid romantic entanglements. She is hopelessly in love with him from the get go so the conflict basically centers on him dealing with his personal loss, his family situation and some oddly endearing (but still serious) anxiety issues.
KH deals beautifully with both the H & h's internal struggles. I love the fact that they are "whole" human beings with interests and lives outside the whole romantic sphere. I really felt for the h! She was just so sweet and sincere when she tells the H how she feels I sighed and made my kindle cloudy. I felt actual PAIN that he didn't immediately respond by falling to her feet and telling her that she was the one for him and that she was WONDERFUL and AWESOME and he totally WANTED HER FOREVER. I'll never forgive him for that.
I will say that in this story there was a slight "wobble" in the mood on account of the rather somber theme of the H being a widower and all that. But KH is just a great writer (A+++ for dialogue) that the little moodiness just sort of become irrelevant.
Re-read
