HQN Coming August 2010
One happily-ever-after rocking chair…
And no sign of any forthcoming babies to rock in ol’ Georgebury, Vermont. For Callie Grey, turning thirty means coming to grips with the fact that her boss (and five-week fling) is way overdue in his marriage proposal. And way off track, because Mark has suddenly announced his engagement to the company’s new Miss Perfect. If that isn’t bad enough, her mom decides to throw her a 3-0 birthday bash in the family funeral home.
Bad goes to worse when she stirs up a relationship with the town’s most eligible — yet not so warm and fuzzy — veterinarian, Ian McFarland, in order to flag Mark’s attention. So Ian’s more comfortable with animals… So he’s formal, orderly and just a bit tense. The ever-friendly, fun-loving and spontaneous Callie decides it’s time for Ian to get a personality makeover. But, dang — if he doesn’t shock the heck out of her, she might actually fall for Vermont’s unlikeliest eligible bachelor…
I was given this book for review purpose only... So the thoughts are strictly my own.
Callie, short for Calliope, is a delightful woman. She is normal (talks to herself ~ yeah I consider that normal cuz I do it), average size (she is perfect to me) and above all else ~ hilarious! Her family is as dysfunctional as it gets ~ her older sister is a fertility doctor with two adopted daughters, her younger brother is a lost college student who loves women, probabably a little too much and is lost in every other sense of the word but a genius. Her mother and father have been divorced since Callie was eight because her father cheated on her mother. Her mother runs the family business (on her family side) which happens to be a funeral home (which they lived in as a family as they were growing up) and her father is now retired. Callie lives with her grumpy old grandfather... who is such a grump he is character all on his own.
Callie works at an advertising and publishing agency that she kinda helped build from the ground up with her boss Mark. Who also happens to be the man of her dreams. They have known each other ever since high school and she has loved him ever since too. With a slight problem... he told her the timing was not right. Can you spell O-U-C-H. Oh and let me mention she is turning the big 3-0 as a woman, we all know what that means... you start looking at your life a little different ~ family, marriage, kids, your life... living with your grandfather and not on your own...
This is book is a very good read. This is a romance novel, so there is no smut in this book. The revelation is that I fell in love with this book. Ms. Higgins is a new to me author and I will be looking at more of her writings.
Callie is a woman of today. She knows that for every good side, there is a down side. She knows that there are two sides of herself ~ the Beep Bop side of her... lusty and sexy and the Michelle Obama side... the one that is logical, keeps her head on straight. But the thing that struck me the most about Callie was being a real woman, a people person, she like pleasing people. Some would call her a ray of sunshine. And sometimes not in a good way, lol. But everyone loved her. Some just not in the way she wanted. Out of all of her life though, she had one treasured gem... a rocker. Not just any rocker... it was Happily Ever After chair. That just touched my heart and warmed my soul. She was me, my sister, my best friend...
This book made me laugh, cry, made me want to kick a certain guy in the nuts and slap the other one at times. It made me want to kiss my mother, hug my father and sit a spell with my grandparents. But most of all, it made me fall in love.
We get to watch Callie figure out love, lust and the happily ever after part. We get to watch love bloom, heartache heals, best friends stick together. We get to see love in all the odd places and a family come together. This is an amazing tale of one woman determined to have her happily ever after.
And on a side note, I will say that I love the cover because it is sooo fitting to the book!!!
Please go visit Ms. Higgins' website to see all the things she has there!!! (here)
To read an excerpt of this book, please go -->> here.
