Barbour Books (August 1, 2010)
As usual Dacus’ characters entrance and delight readers. Though it took me a bit to unearth this one from the TBR, I always look forward to books from this author. My favorites seem to be her contemporary romances as opposed to historicals though generally historicals and fantasies take the day over contemporaries. However Dacus has not only very mechanically clean books but weaves in plenty of realistic comedies of errors and other comic relief scenes that keep the tone of her novels light even when dealing with serious topics. Some authors seem to just throw in “a scene for laughs” or try too hard not to bog down a story with highly emotional moments that what should flow naturally from the plot and characters becomes stilted and contrived. Kaye has a knack for knowing what fits and what doesn’t while keeping the plot moving smoothly.
There is plenty of havoc to be wreaked when high school sweethearts collide a decade or so after Zarah’s father disowned her because she was marrying “below” her to stay with the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Then to top things off her father convinced Bobby that Zarah wanted nothing to do with him and if he knew what was good for him he’d split and run on the spot. Though the two spent many years as friends and their grandparents were so close that holidays and family events included both families along with a couple more grandparent/grandchild groupings Zarah’s father had them both ruing the day they ever met. Family friends or not neither Zarah or Bobby have any intention of rehashing the past only to find yet another dose of heartache at the end. Zarah is living a dream researching and archiving for the local historical society and considering the options if she ever dared to leave “home”. Bobby has a successful career in law enforcement but when a transfer back home lands him on a case involving the organization Zarah works for and they are thrown together at every opportunity by those loving grandparents that want nothing more than the happiness they found for themselves to also bless those close to them things get awful sticky all around. (ISBN#9781602609891, 320pp, $12.99)
Codicil:
Visit Kaye’s website and blog. Click the cover for more info and to purchase a copy. Thanks to Barbour for a review copy.
