When You Got A Good Thing

Wow, what a tale! Hard to put down!

Life and human relationships are complex, and there is a lot of that kind of truth contained, and conveyed, in this book. After reading book 2 in this series to start, I eagerly went back to the beginning in this engaging series, to fill in the blanks I had, and found another mostly very enjoyable (stand-alone) read. And now, I am entirely looking forward to to book 3 next because this is an especially gifted storyteller who mostly combines realism and romance extremely well.

Four adopted sisters, one of them the focus of this book, but also a great setup to reel us into interest in each of them as individuals too, through their diverse foster child starts in life and blended adoptive family dynamics. Add their adoptive mother’s early and unexpected passing, one girl/woman a wanderer returned home for the funeral and also wants to help save the family home if possible, and be able to continue with sharing that home with their youngest almost-sister, still a foster child ... add in rekindling of a teenaged romance, the impacts of a life-changing secret held tight for 10 years affecting them all in varying degrees ... quite the tale, as already noted, as many facets of looking at things come into play through different eyes and experiences.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book, but I also feel compelled to issue a note of caution to certain readers, out of compassion knowing what made me read the entire story in one day (In my case, thank goodness it was a Saturday and I could!). If you have past experience of police unethically and baselessly using intimidation tactics on you and/or have endured family-based trauma where rejection unfairly landed on you based on their false assumptions and/or distancing was necessary for your own physical or emotional safety, and especially when such events may have completely changed the trajectory of your life, this could prove quite a difficult, triggering read for you, particularly on the eventual revelation of the founding cause and who was involved in it. That said, as an example of a young woman who might have fled under threat and duress to start, but then overcame the various related traumas on her own, who managed to find the sugar and water components to make lemonade with those kinds of lemons she was handed, there are empowering elements of healing in there. It’s heartwarming, but also so not realistic for most of us targets to accomplish, nor should we have to, without the support of significant others and the appropriate professionals, as would have been more helpful to at least acknowledge, I feel strongly.

Still, being a HEA romance, that the story glossed over the facts that most of us need the referenced professional help to process and recover from the kind of traumatic event and loss-of-confidence-and-self fallout that is portrayed (ultimately the devastating event is only a small part of the prose, but it’s a big theme you cannot escape being uncomfortable with throughout, if so wired) is the reason I have granted 4 stars instead of 5. I highly respect the author, a talented and imaginative storyteller and writer, and I hope she might read reviews like this part of this one, and be provided a bit of food for thought for future threads where strength of character sure helps, but acknowledging having used professional help in such situations should also be included as a character’s deserving it, as a norm not an exception, and thus an implied or explicitly described character strength also to have sought to heal and recover (and believably become a loving and forgiving woman like Kennedy is) which is given life too.