'Anything for You' Blue Heron #5 by Kristan Higgins

Received via NetGalley 

From the BLURB:

Before you get down on bended knee… 

…you should be pretty darn sure the answer will be yes. For ten years, Connor O'Rourke has been waiting for Jessica Dunn to take their on-again, off-again relationship public, and he thinks the time has come. His restaurant is thriving, she's got her dream job at Blue Heron Vineyard—it's the perfect time to get married. 

When he pops the question, however, her answer is a fond but firm no. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Jess has her hands full with her younger brother, who's now living with her full-time, and a great career after years of waitressing. What she and Connor have is perfect: friends with an excellent benefits package. Besides, with her difficult past (and reputation), she's positive married life isn't for her. 

But this time, Connor says it's all or nothing. If she doesn't want to marry him, he'll find someone who does. Easier said than done, given that he's never loved anyone but her. And maybe Jessica isn't quite as sure as she thinks… 

‘Anything For You’ is the fifth book in Kristan Higgins’ contemporary romance series, ‘Blue Heron.’

This book is about a character we first met and had the most dealings with, way back in first book ‘The Best Man’. Jessica Dunn was the girl with a reputation who gave Faith Holland a hard time in school, and was the frequent bed partner of Levi Cooper. Jessica is the heroine of this instalment, paired with Connor O'Rourke who is the owner of local restaurant O'Rourke’s and twin to Colleen (‘Waiting on You’).

‘Anything For You’ actually kicks things off with Connor proposing to Jessica, and her turning him down. It starts with them breaking up – and then backtracks to explain their rollercoaster, secret relationship over the last few years. The lengthy flashback chapters also reveal what we barely scratched the surface of in ‘The Best Man’, knowing that Jessica was raised in the same trailer-park as Levi – daughter to two alcoholic parents, and big sister to Davey who was born with Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

I really, really loved this instalment. Jessica was such an interesting heroine – she’s always used her beauty to her only advantage, strategically sleeping with popular guys in high school to ensure they’d look out for her brother Davey and make sure he was never hassled. Now as an adult, she’s in a position of not being able to shake her small-town reputation as “Jessica Does,” and is always wary when good things come her way through sheer talent and brains – she’s currently working at the Blue Heron vineyard as their publicity manager, but is always on-guard thinking she’ll be fired any day now.

She and Connor, we discover, have had a rocky relationship. As kids he was attacked by her family’s dog and nearly died, resulting in the dog being put down and Davey holding a life-long hatred and fear of Connor and the O’Rourke name. This throws a serious banner in the works when Connor and Jess reconnect years later and try to make a go of it … because Davey is her whole life, ever since her mother died and father did a runner, she’s his primary carer (and has been since she was a kid herself) and she always wants to put him first.

The other thing about Jess is – she can’t believe Connor could want to be with her beyond a one-time fling or secret relationship. Jess is used to being desired and discarded, and Connor’s intensity plus promises of commitment intimidate the hell out of her;

He kissed her again, more gently this time, and her fingers found their way into his thick, wavy hair. “You’re not easy, Jessica Dunn,” he murmured against her mouth. “You are not easy.” 

“Actually, I am. That’s the problem.” 

He looked so sure, but her worries were already off to the races. What would happen when they were really together, and there was no chase anymore, and their everyday lives consisted of Davey and work and things like furnaces breaking and needing a new car? What would happen when he actually had her?

Connor is also an interesting character for his family history – a father who was always distant, until he ran off with a much younger woman and started a second family with her. ‘Anything For You’ plays out against Connor’s twin, Colleen, ready to pop with her first baby – and his father reaching out and wanting to know how they can mend their relationship.

I really loved this instalment. This book just reminded me why Higgins is one of the best – Jess starts out quite cold and unlikable, and then Higgins peels her layers away and by the end readers are right there with Connor in understanding why she’s worth fighting for and convincing of her own worth.

5/5

'If You Only Knew' by Kristan Higgins

Received from NetGalley 

From the BLURB:

Wedding-dress designer Jenny Tate understands the happily-ever-after business, yet somehow she's still involved in her ex-husband's life. In fact, Owen's new wife may—inexplicably—be Jenny's new best friend. Sensing this, well, relationship isn't helping her move on, Jenny trades the Manhattan skyline for her hometown up the Hudson, where she'll be able to bask in her sister Rachel's picture-perfect family life…and hopefully make one of her own. 

Her timing couldn't be more perfect, since Rachel will need her younger sister. Her idyllic marriage has just fallen to pieces in spectacular fashion after she discovers her husband sexting with one of his colleagues. Second chances aren't in Rachel's nature, but the desire for an intact family has her rethinking her stance on adultery, much to Jenny's surprise. Rachel points to their parents' "perfect" marriage as a shining example, but to protect her sister Jenny may have to tarnish that memory—and their relationship­—and reveal a secret about their family she's been keeping since childhood. 

During this summer of secrets and lies, temptation and revelation, Jenny and Rachel will rely on each other to find the humor in their personal catastrophes, the joy in their triumphs…and the strength to keep hanging on.

‘If You Only Knew’ is the latest novel from Kristan Higgins – but let me just be clear and say I wouldn’t call this a romance. This is much more women’s fiction, closely aligned with the likes of Liane Moriarty or Jojo Moyes.

I’m still quite new to the Kristan Higgins fandom, considering she’s been steadily releasing books since 2006 and I only read my first one in 2013. But I already have my favourites of her backlist (‘Just One of the Guys’) and find myself eagerly anticipating each new yearly romance release. I’ve come to love Higgin’s masterful balance of heartbreak and humour in her romances, the way she can start a protagonist at the lowest point and build them up from within so that when a fella does comes along, he tends to feel more like the cherry-on-top rather than the whole shebang-sundae. Higgins is such a fine romance writer for paying equal attention to her heroine’s deeper purpose and life ambitions. So, truth be told, I wasn’t all that surprised when I started reading ‘If You Only Knew’ and discovered Higgins’ ventured more to the women’s fiction end of things, with the romance taking more of a backseat to marital crises, family secrets and suburban facades. But in losing the romantic element, Higgins seemed to lose a little spark in her writing, and the seemingly crucial humour element that really makes her work leap off the page and into reader’s hearts.

This is the story of two sisters. Younger sister Jenny is a wedding-dress designer and amicably-awkward friends with her perfect ex-husband and his equally perfect new wife, Ana-Sofia. Jenny thought she and Owen were happy and in love, even if she wanted a family and he didn’t, she was willing to wait for him to be ready … then he dropped the bombshell that he’d fallen out of love with her, and shortly after their divorce he remarried the perfect woman and started a family with her. The thing is, Owen still wants to be friends with Jenny and Jenny, being that she’s still in love with him, is happy to martyr herself;

Owen still asks about my work. He loves my sister and nieces and mother. He thinks I’m pretty and funny and smart. He admires my creativity. We have a similar sense of humour. Conversation comes easily, and since the day I met him, and even through out quickie divorce and his marriage, I have yet to go three days without hearing from him. Even when he’s been in a third-world country with Doctors Without Borders. Even now. 

So. Being Owen’s ex-wife is still better than any relationship I’ve ever had, except for one – when I was his actual wife.

Older sister Rachel is the happy stay-at-home mom of triplet girls, married to her still handsome husband, Adam. Or so she thinks. A sexting scandal erupts in their happy home-life, and Rachel is forced to confront the prospect of being single at forty versus staying in a marriage that has more than a few cracks starting to show.

Meanwhile, a family secret that only Jenny knows could be the secret to her sister’s perspective on what’s really behind the “perfect” marriage.

Cheating – extramarital, and emotional – is a big theme in this book. Now, I love me a good cheating storyline, which makes me a romance reader anomaly I know! But I love the instant emotional connection and gut-wrench that comes with a cheating storyline, when readers are put into a protagonist’s corner and I eagerly anticipate that Aretha Franklin R-E-S-P-E-C-T moment for the wronged party within a crumbling marriage. And I like reading cheating storylines when they’re doubly complicated by children and the seemingly idyllic white-picket-fence marriage. I like poking at that bruise of suburban rot, because cheating storylines are (and probably only in my opinion) the closest that romance stories often get to noir – with the seedy underbelly of a marriage revealed, a femme fatale and damsel in distress. Corny and reductive (especially to women), I know but it’s my guilty-trope and I can’t help liking it. So believe me when I say I’m surprised at how much I hated the cheating storyline in this book.

I found Jenny’s story and complicated post-divorce friendship with Owen to be interesting, and a new take on cheating. But Rachel’s storyline did nothing for me … it read too simplistic and predictable, there was no new territory trod here. Adam was reduced to a caricature of the cheating husband when what I would have preferred was nuance and grey-areas. A future male love interest is glimpsed for Rachel, but he came so far out of left field as to be a bit ridiculous. And I didn’t like the treatment of the “other woman” – ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ are bandied about because she’s as much a caricature as Adam, and one moment in which Rachel shows a glimmer of sympathy for her felt trite.

‘If You Only Knew’ did remind me a small bit of Liane Moriarty’s ‘The Husband's Secret’ … that book is all about marriages and their myriad twists and turns, surprises even for the parties involved. But where I walked away from Moriarty’s ‘The Husband's Secret’ – which also has a strong through line of extramarital affairs – with a feeling that Moriarty had brought something new to the “wronged woman” and “cheating louse” tropes, I came out of ‘If You Only Knew’ thinking only that Higgins didn’t shine any new lights on the topic, and instead trod a careful and predictable path.

There is a small dose of romance in the book for Jenny – in the form of her super Leo, a mysterious man who claims to only be for “recreational” purposes. This romance is so tonally different from what Higgins normally writes … there’s no lightness or humour really in the whole book, and especially not much around Leo and Jenny. Even Higgin’s trademark – a dog in every book – is depressing, with the dog a literal symbol of sadness and loss.

One thing I really loved was Manhattan as a character. When the book begins, Jenny has moved to back to her hometown an hour out of Manhattan, and the move is a break-up in itself, from the city that never sleeps;

What I didn’t quite expect was that as soon as I left Manhattan behind, the beneficent, regal creature forgot me. It tolerated me when I was a student of eighteen, it gave me my chance, it celebrated me when I made it, and it forgot me the second I drove over the Henry Hudson Bridge. You’re always just a foster child in the city that never sleeps. The second you go, someone else takes your room.
 

I did like aspects of this book. I think Higgins’ exploring Jenny and Rachel’s sisterly bond was lovely and nuanced – and perhaps that’s the real romance in ‘If You Only Knew’, between two sisters whose friendship starts out strong and just gets stronger by the end. But I think Higgins also missed an opportunity to explore deeper family ramifications of cheating by choosing to keep a few secrets only to Jenny.

I didn’t love ‘If You Only Knew’, certainly not as much as I’ve come to crave Higgins’ romance books. That being said – I think she’s onto something with a foray into women’s fiction and a step back from her usual romance genre. I just wish she’d remember that writing without the intention of a happily-ever-after man on her heroine’s arm doesn’t mean she should lose that sense of humour that readers have come to love.

3/5

‘In Your Dreams’ Blue Heron #4 by Kristan Higgins

 Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

Emmaline Neal needs a date. Just a date—someone to help her get through her ex-fiancé's wedding without losing her mind. But pickings are slim in Manningsport, New York, population 715. In fact, there's really only one option: local heartthrob Jack Holland. Everyone loves Jack, and he won't get the wrong idea…. After all, Jack Holland would never actually be interested in a woman like Em. Especially not with his beautiful ex-wife creeping around, angling to reunite ever since he rescued a group of teens and became a local hero. 

But when the wedding festivities take an unexpectedly passionate turn, Em figures it was just one crazy night. Jack is too gorgeous, too popular, to ever end up with her. So why is she the one he can talk to about his deep, dark feelings? If Em is going to get her dream man, she'll have to start by believing in him…

What do you do when you’re invited to the wedding of your previously overweight (now ab-tastic) ex-fiancée and the fitness fanatic trainer he left you for? Well, according to the majority of townsfolk from Manningsport, New York you invite Jack Holland along as your perfect date. Especially if you’re Emmaline Neal – police officer, and German shepherd owner who has been on two dates in three years since Kevin broke her heart and is not above referring to the station’s criminal database searching for a potential petty criminal to act as her wedding date. Because even though Jack Holland is delicious, and divorced (after a very, very messy breakup that included his Southern Belle wife cheating on him) even if he is the local hero after rescuing a car of teenage boys that ploughed into a lake … the fact is, Emmaline doesn’t want Jack Holland’s pity date. 

Jack, meanwhile, would love nothing more than to get out of town for a destination wedding in Malibu as a stand-in, maybe pretend boyfriend. It’s just the escape Jack is looking for, since rescuing that car of drunken teenage boys landed him hero status – something he’s especially uncomfortable with, since one of those boys is slowly dying and still in a coma. Jack’s been having nightmares and panic attacks since the rescue, and taking Emmaline Neal to the wedding of her ex sounds like a great distraction – especially when Jack’s ex-wife, Hadley, gets wind of his hero status (thanks to an interview with Anderson Cooper) and returns to Manningsport in the hopes of rekindling their trainwreck of a marriage. 

What neither Jack nor Emmaline counts on is a surprising but electrifying attraction – especially when it comes at the worst of times. Jack is fighting PTSD, an ex-wife who could double as Blanche DuBois and Em does not want to get her heart broken by another man who is tempted by a skinny, beautiful woman who claims to know what’s best for him.

‘In Your Dreams’ is the fourth book in Kristan Higgins’ addictive contemporary 'Blue Heron' romance series set in Manningsport, and mostly centred around the Holland family who run the Blue Heron winery. 

I really loved this instalment in Higgins’ series. I was a wee bit worried about Jack as our romantic lead, only because much had been made of his good looks and charm in previous books and the last thing I wanted was to read a Mary Sue dude. But it’s quickly established that Jack in this book is suffering emotionally after an impromptu rescue gone wrong, and he’s been wounded in the past by a sour marriage that ended after infidelity. I was surprised but relieved to discover Jack is a good guy who usually finishes last, looks and charm aside, he knows what it’s like when life screws you over. And, actually, Emmaline has the same reaction to Jack that many readers will – thinking he has the perfect life from the outside, but discovering his difficulties and insecurities as they get to know each other… 

And speaking of Emmaline – I loved her. She’s closely aligned to a previous Higgins heroine (and one of my favourites!) Chastity O'Neill from ‘Just One of the Guys’ – a tomboy who didn’t want to change who she was, to attract the guy of her dreams. Emmaline is similar in the tomboy aspect – preferring beer to wine, her police uniform to dresses, she plays hockey and hates doing anything to her hair. I really liked when Hadley came on the scene and Emmaline found both of them fighting for Jack’s affections. Hadley is petite and blonde, a Southern Belle and thoroughly annoying – but next to her Emmaline feels like a gorilla, and wonders how Jack can be interested in her when Hadley is his ex-wife; 

“What if Hadley wasn’t in town?” he asked when she failed to answer. “And what if those kids didn’t … crash? Would you go out with me then?” 

“Well, you were never interested before, so I’d have to say no.” 

“Maybe I could say you were the one who was never interested, whereas I always thought of you as the hot hockey chick.” 

Another snort. Must stop doing that. “You never asked me out.” 

“You never gave me the time of day.” 

“If you were pining for me, you hid it well.” 

He gave her a tolerant look. “I wasn’t pining for you, Emmaline. I did think you were the hot hockey chick. We all do.” 

“Which explains why I’ve had two dates in three years.” 

“Maybe your sweet and gentle personality has something to do with that.” 

Much is made in the beginning of Emmaline’s past relationship with Kevin, her childhood sweetheart turned fiancée who was morbidly obese but left her for his trainer once he started losing weight. I really liked this storyline, if only because it allowed plenty of leeway for Higgins humour, especially around fitness fanatics. And a fitness fanatic wedding is especially hilarious; 

The special memories sharing was more of the same. The marathon when Kevin had to crawl across the finish line just after he lost control of his bowels. The difficult time when Naomi had ruptured her Achilles tendon and could only run seven miles a day. The hilarious time when they were doing an Ironman race and Naomi’s bike had crashed, her shoulder dislocated, and God bless her! She’d just rammed it back into place on a convenient tree, got back on the bike and caught up to Kevin, who of course hadn’t stopped because it was “emotionally important” for him to give this race his all, and of course Naomi understood and supported this.  

“I don’t know,” Em murmured. “I think I’d want someone to stop and call an ambulance for me.” 

“I would do that,” Jack said. “And I’d tell the paramedics to give you extra painkillers.” 

But the Kevin storyline dropped right off once Jack and Emmaline kindled their romance, and if anything I’d have liked slightly more closure to this aspect of Emmaline’s past.

Overall I loved this instalment in Kristan Higgins’ ‘Blue Heron’ series. A non-girly heroine who needs a confidence boost, a seemingly perfect hero whose flaws and insecurities are refreshing and the usual laughs and puppy-awwws fans have come to love from Higgins’ books. This one’s a winner!

4/5

‘Waiting on You’ Blue Heron #3 by Kristan Higgins

From the BLURB:

Does being nobody's fool mean that you're nobody's love?

Colleen O'Rourke is in love with love... just not when it comes to herself. Most nights, she can be found behind the bar at the Manningsport, New York, tavern she owns with her twin brother, doling out romantic advice to the lovelorn, mixing martinis and staying more or less happily single. See, ten years ago, Lucas Campbell, her first love, broke her heart... an experience Colleen doesn't want to have again, thanks. Since then, she's been happy with a fling here and there, some elite-level flirting and playing matchmaker to her friends.

But a family emergency has brought Lucas back to town, handsome as ever and still the only man who's ever been able to crack her defenses. Seems like maybe they've got some unfinished business waiting for them—but to find out, Colleen has to let her guard down, or risk losing a second chance with the only man she's ever loved.

Colleen O'Rourke is a modern-day Emma. At least seven children in her local town of Manningsport have been named after her, in thanks for matchmaking their parents. She’s drummed up plenty of business for the local bridal store and lots of people in town are lining up to have Colleen match them with their soul mates.

Colleen’s so good at matchmaking other people only because her own love life is so abysmal. Not many people in town know (because that’s just the way Colleen wants it) but she was burned by her first true-love and never recovered from the heartbreak.

Lucas Campbell was the new boy in town when Colleen was a senior, he and his cousin Bryce moved to town after Lucas’s mother died and his father was thrown in prison then sent to live with his aunt and uncle. Before Lucas Campbell arrived, Colleen was the perfect popular girl – adored by everyone, but always turning down dates from her male classmates. But that all changed when Lucas came to town – with his Spaniard eyes and reluctant smile. In Colleen, Lucas found someone that was just for him, and Colleen finally had someone worth taking a chance on.

But then it all came apart, quickly and devastatingly. Ten years later, Colleen still hasn’t let her heart recover from missing Lucas Campbell. So the last thing she needs is for him to breeze back into Manninsport – in town to spend time with his dying uncle and help get his dopey cousin straightened out and grown up, and reminding her of what they lost.

‘Waiting on You’ is the third book in Kristan Higgins’ ‘Blue Heron’ romance series.

I am so glad that I loved this book, after thinking ‘The Perfect Match’ was fairly ho-hum. This instalment takes us away from the Holland sisters, and focuses on local bartender and Faith’s best friend, Colleen (one half of twin-duo with her brother and restaurant co-owner, Connor). Colleen had been established as the expert flirt in town, and beloved amateur therapist who hears everyone’s problems when she pours them their brew. But it has also been hinted that a break up in Colleen’s past still haunts her to this day, which is why she’s more predisposed to flings than relationships, and no man has been able to turn her head in years.

I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled with an instalment that took us away from Blue Heron – I was actually hoping for a book about the Holland brother. But Higgins very quickly establishes Colleen’s broken-hearted past, and I was totally in her corner after getting the story of how Lucas Campbell screwed her over. And that’s the thing that bugged me a little about this book – when they were (admittedly) younger, Lucas did a stupid thing that spiralled into really hurtful and left a break in Colleen that still hasn’t healed. It’s bad, and will make you a little weepy when the whole, sad story is pulled out – but I never entirely felt like Lucas accounted for his actions or felt the right level of remorse. But maybe that’s just me.

Considering how hurt Colleen was by Lucas ten years ago, it’s understandable that when he returns to Manningsport she’s at def-con zero;

“About my new man,” she said. “I need someone hot and romantic and intelligent with a great sense of humour who can cook and is also a cowboy or a firefighter.” 

Faith snorted. “Okay, I’m thinking … uh … cowboys are pretty scarce. And for hot firefighters, we only have Gerard.” 

“You know what would be great? A tragic widower type, like Jude Law in ‘The Holiday.’ Definitely my type. Or Hugh Jackman in ‘Les Mis.’ Le sigh!” 

“Right, right. Impoverished fugitives who burst into song. Coming up empty, Coll.”

Something I really loved about this book (and something that Higgins does so damn well) is write robust and interesting secondary characters’ with back-stories to surround her protagonists. In Colleen’s world; it’s her father who cheated on her mother with ‘Gail the Tail’ ten years ago, but her mother has never recovered and to this day expects her ex-husband to come crawling back. Colleen has a beloved nine-year-old stepsister called Savannah who is struggling with her weight and body image, particularly when her mother is so body-conscious herself. And Colleen’s father hasn’t been apart of her life since he cheated on his wife and started a new family ten years ago. Then there’s Paulie – a local girl and princess to the Chicken King (who owns a chain of deep friend chicken stores) who asks for Colleen’s help in roping her dream man … who just happens to be Lucas’s cousin, Bryce. But when Lucas comes to town to spend time with his dying uncle, and straighten Bryce out with a job, he gets wind of Colleen’s matchmaking scheme and is not happy.

Higgins is brilliant at writing these interesting secondary characters to round-out her story and heroes, and ‘Waiting on You’ is one of the best examples of this.

I really loved Colleen. A few times Higgins slips in how beautiful and desired Colleen is, but I never resented her as I so often do when female characters are presented as practically perfect in every way. Colleen’s wicked sense of humour and compassion save her from venturing into Mary-Sue territory, as does her brilliant repartee with the people she loves, like her twin;

“Hey, placenta hog. Just because you were born three minutes sooner doesn’t mean you know everything.”

I also really loved Lucas, despite feeling that he didn’t account enough for his actions ten years ago (and, actually, in recent years when he didn’t attempt to reach out to Colleen). He has a really complicated history, that’s definitely dictating his current hang-ups. But his chemistry with Colleen is insane, and towards the end I definitely got the impression that he was reeling from the realisation that he lost so much ten years ago, with a couple of stupid mistakes.

This is probably the biggest emotional roller-coaster Higgins book I’ve yet read. She really presents a fractured couple in Colleen and Lucas, but she makes it work with a delightfully varied and sprawling cast of secondary characters with back-stories as interesting as the protagonists’. I got a little frustrated with the slut-shaming focus towards the end, but otherwise this was a fabulous instalment in the ‘Blue Heron’ series (I WANT MORE!!!!) and one of the best Higgins books I’ve read. Fabulous.

4/5

‘Just One of the Guys’ by Kristan Higgins

From the BLURB:

Being one of the guys isn't all it's cracked up to be...So when journalist Chastity O'Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it's time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. Two tiny problems: #1--she's five feet eleven inches of rock-solid girl power, and #2--she's cursed with four alpha male older brothers.

While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor and things start to look up. Now there's only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she's never quite gotten over--although he seems to have gotten over her just fine.

Yet the more time she spends with Dr. Perfect, the better Trevor looks. But even with the in-your-face competition, the irresistible Trevor just can't seem to see Chastity as anything more than just one of the guys....

Chastity O'Neill has just been unceremoniously dumped by a too-skinny guy with freckled legs. His reason? She’s not “attractive” enough. The nerve! Just because Chastity is sportier, fitter and taller than him does not make her “unattractive” it makes him a pipsqueak, and not good enough for her. Unfortunately, now Chastity has absolutely zero dating prospects in the hometown she returned to six weeks ago. Even worse? The man she’s been in love with since adolescence is more handsome than ever, and attracting women left, right and centre.

Trevor Meade is an honorary O’Neill – practically a fourth brother to Chastity … or, at least, that’s what her family thinks. In actuality Trevor and Chastity shared an incredible two-night stand back in college, and Chastity has been in love with him ever since. Meanwhile Trevor never again mentioned their hook-up, and was even briefly engaged to another woman for a time. Now though, he seems annoyingly content to play the field.

“What’s your first name?” she asks. “Charity?” 

“Chastity,” I correct. One of my classmates smiles. “My father thought it was funny,” I explain. “My middle name’s Virginia.” 

“Ouch,” the woman says. 

‘Just One of the Guys’ was the 2008 contemporary romance novel from Kristan Higgins (who I’m currently obsessed with). 

So, I started reading this book and was a little concerned. This is now my 4th Higgins book I've read (in the post-Christmas break I gorged on two of her books in two days!) and I've noticed a theme in all so far – women with body issues. Or, rather, women whose bodies are a focus and commented on by others. In ‘The Best Man’ heroine Faith Holland was very voluptuous and sometimes self-conscious of her abundance. Posey Osterhagen in ‘Until There Was You’ was teased in high school for being a ‘bag of bones’ with the body of a ten-year-old boy and in ‘Just One of the Guys’ much is made of Chastity O’Neill’s broad shoulders and Amazonian stature. When she asks her long-time crush, Trevor Meade, if she’s conventionally pretty he counters with words like “striking” and “handsome”. I felt a bit uneasy at these heroines who have such backstory in their appearance, and initially worried that it was a bit of an over-emphasis. But Kristan Higgins writes these women with infinite care and tenderness, and pretty soon readers realise what it sometimes takes other characters the whole book to clue into – that these women are not defined by how they look, or their body-type. It’s refreshing, and even though it’s an obvious theme in all her books, Higgins eventually lets the body issues melt into the background as non-issues. 

Something I really love about all Higgin’s books thus far is the camaraderie. Family (both blood and friends) are a big focus for all her characters, never more so than in ‘Just One of the Guys’ when Chastity is the sole girl in a family of fire-fighting brothers, with her father as Captain. And the brothers O’Neill definitely steal the show in their scenes, sometimes causing belly-aching laughter; 

Mom leans over and snatches the cover off the platter, unveiling her creation. Calling it dinner would be inaccurate and somehow cruel. 

Jack stares at it despondently. “That pot roast will come out of me the same way it goes in,” he announces. “Stringy, gray and tough. And with a great deal of effort.” 

“John Michael O’Neill! Shame on you!” Mom sputters as the rest of us try unsuccessfully to hide our laughter.

But the real reason I loved the O’Neill clan was for the backstories. There’s eldest brother Mark, married to Chastity’s best friend and currently going through a messy divorce after he admitted to cheating on his wife. Mark and Elaina aren’t the only O’Neill’s going through a rocky patch – in one of the best secondary stories I've read lately, Chastity’s divorced (but still very much in love) parents are at a Mexican stand-off when Mama O’Neill announces she’s going to join Chastity in the world of online dating, as she’s sick and tired of waiting for her ex-husband to retire and leave his first love – firefighting – behind for her. 

Then there’s Chastity herself – in love with her ‘honorary’ brother, Trevor Meade, who looks upon her as his little sister and best friend and ‘just one of the guys’. If I had any complaints about this book, it’s perhaps that Trevor and Chastity spent a little too much time in the ‘will they?’ of the ‘will they or won’t they?’ portion of the plot. I'd have liked a bit more evidence of them being the perfect match, instead of the brief flashbacks to a two-day dating period in college that’s so defined Chastity’s feelings for Trevor.

Another reason I love Higgin’s books at the moment (and especially this one) is that they’re dogs in all of them. Yep, in 2013 I became a “dog person” and have since gravitated to any romance book cover with a pooch. And Higgins doesn’t just deliver the cute, but the laughs with her canine characters. In ‘Just One of the Guys’ there’s a menstruating bloodhound to guffaw over, in a scene that had me in stitches and glad I was reading in the privacy of my bedroom. 

4.5/5

‘Until There Was You’ by Kristan Higgins

From the BLURB:

Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her loveable, if off-center, family and she has a boyfriend—sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking...something like Liam Murphy.

When Posey was sixteen, the bad boy of Bellsford New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again. She should be giving him a wide berth, but it seems fate has other ideas...

Liam Murphy is back in his hometown after being away for some seventeen years. He grew up in this small, idyllic town as the requisite bad boy complete with band and motorbike, a bad reputation and a killer track record with women. But then he left Bellsford, New Hampshire to follow his perfect girlfriend to California, marry her and raise their surprise baby. 

Now Liam has returned a widower and father to his sixteen-year-old daughter, Nicole. He’s back in Bellsford to be closer to Emma’s parents and Nicole’s only grandparents, to start up a motorcycle repair shop and try to get their lives back on track after Emma’s death, from cancer. But being back in the town that all too clearly remembers his less-than-stellar reputation (and those women who remember him for all the wrong reasons) is wreaking havoc on Liam settling down. As are his newly-developed OCD habits and panic attacks, bought on since his wife’s death.

Someone who isn’t exactly thrilled to see Liam return to Bellsford is Posey Osterhagen – her parents own the kitschy German-theme restaurant in town, and employed Liam there throughout his high school career. A couple of years younger than the bad boy of Bellsford, Posey was no different from every other girl in town who fell for Liam’s dangerous charm. He was her first love, and the first boy to break her heart when he fell hard for popular princess, Emma. 

Seeing Liam Murphy back in town puts Posey’s less-than-ideal life into perspective. Sure, she has one huge dog and three cats, a perpetually-unfinished church home that needs restoration and a successful salvage business. But she’s just got out of a bad booty call “relationship” and isn’t having any luck finding someone to settle down with. And then her celebrity TV chef (and well-endowed) cousin also returns to Bellsford, and Posey feels more dissatisfied than ever before. But when Liam Murphy starts noticing her – really noticing skinny, ‘bag of bones’ Posey Osterhagen for the first time – she has to be careful not to let her heart get ahead of her. 

‘Until There Was You’ was the 2011 contemporary romance novel from Kristan Higgins. 

I have a new reading obsession, and her name is Kristan Higgins. A friend of mine started reading the ‘Blue Heron’ series (the first book I loved, second book more ‘meh’) which kick-started me to try one of Higgins’s stand-alones as a bit of light, fun reading over this Christmas/New Year holiday period. Two days later I've inhaled two of her books and started on a third, tracked down books from her backlist at my local library and bookstore. I am obsessed. And if you think it’s just a fluke with me – check out her (practically unheard of) star-reviews on Kirkus. I mean … no offense, but Kirkus can be quite snooty and some of their reviews of romance novels make me wince, but even they know what a star Kristan Higgins is! 

‘Until There Was You’ ticks so many romance boxes for me. There’s the reformed bad-boy (now the panicked father of a teenage girl!), a tom-boy heroine, small town setting and the haunted years of high school that keep coming back to bite the hero and heroine in the butt. It all just worked for me – particularly Posey Osterhagen who is possibly one of the most interesting contemporary romance heroines I've ever read. For starters; she’s adopted, and certain circumstances in her life have her reconsidering whether or not she wants to go searching for her birth mother. Her prerequisite outfit is jeans, flannel shirts and heavy leather boots (she works in a salvage yard) and she’s still plagued and made insecure by the body-image bullying she was tormented with in high school – being underdeveloped, she was accused of being a “bag of bones” with the body of a 10-year-old boy and, worst of all, nicknamed ‘Anne Frank’. When Liam Murphy – the older bad boy she pined for from afar – returns to town and they strike up a snarky reacquaintance with undertones of heat, she struggles to comprehend that this Golden God is interested in her.

I love that Higgins revisits a lot of old teenage traumas as they impact on characters later on in life. Even Liam struggles with his old bad-boy reputation upon returning to Bellsford. Women he doesn’t remember sleeping with are slipping him their phone numbers, and he’s doing business with men whose wives he deflowered. Not to mention his sixteen-year-old daughter, Nicole, is hungry for any dirt on her father’s teen reputation to use as ammo against him now. 

I also love that Higgins writes relatable female characters. No Mary-Sue’s here – Higgins writes women who are looking for love, panicked about being alone and going through all the typical cringe-inducing shenanigans of single life; 

‘Note to self,’ Posey thought. ‘Avoid singles events in church basements.’ The AA meeting was just about to wrap up (though the Serenity Prayer could be applied to dating: God grant me the courage to date the men who aren’t idiots, the serenity to accept the fact that many men are idiots, and the wisdom to know the difference.) 

And she writes a great sense of community, family and friendship. I was reading ‘Until There Was You’, half wondering if Higgins had this in mind as a series to revisit some of the secondary characters mentioned. This is a stand-alone, and ‘Blue Heron’ is in fact her first foray into romance series – but she’s a real natural at writing well-rounded secondary characters whose lives feel like they continue off the page and not wholly dependent on the protagonist. She’s not afraid to leave a few dangling threads and open-ended possibilities.

One thing that didn’t bug me, necessarily, but left me scratching my head was Liam’s deceased wife, Emma. There’s much made of the fact that Liam and Emma were the surprise golden-couple of Bellsford High School –bad boy falls for the good girl like something out of ‘90210’. When Liam returns and Posey hears of Emma’s death, she’s distraught and feels terrible for Liam, that he lost the love of his life. But the story is told from both Liam and Posey’s perspective, and from him we realise that Liam and Emma were in fact heading by typical way of a couple who marry too young and grow apart later on in life – and by the time Emma got sick, she and Liam were fighting a lot and the spark was all but snuffed from their marriage. When Posey and Liam start feeling sparks, she continually brings up Emma and asks him if he’s okay with starting something with someone new after his beloved wife. What I found odd was that, while readers are privy to the truth of his private thoughts, he and Posey never discuss the added stress of a deteriorating marriage on top of his wife’s dying. So I felt like Posey was left assuming that Emma was indeed the untouchable love of his life, and thus remained somewhat insecure about that because he never said otherwise. That was the one dangling thread in this story that bugged me, and only because it was mentioned so much that I felt for sure it would be addressed at some point. 

‘Until There Was You’ kick-started my Kristan Higgins obsession. From here I went out and bought/borrowed as many of her books as I could get my hands on, and now I’m happily obsessed.

5/5

'The Perfect Match' Blue Heron #2 by Kristan Higgins

From the BLURB:

What if the perfect match is a perfect surprise? 

Honor Holland has just been unceremoniously rejected by her lifelong crush. And now—a mere three weeks later—Mr. Perfect is engaged to her best friend. But resilient, reliable Honor is going to pick herself up, dust herself off and get back out there or she would if dating in Manningsport, New York, population 715, wasn't easier said than done. 

Charming, handsome British professor Tom Barlow just wants to do right by his unofficial stepson, Charlie, but his visa is about to expire. Now Tom must either get a green card or leave the States—and leave Charlie behind. 

In a moment of impulsiveness, Honor agrees to help Tom with a marriage of convenience—and make her ex jealous in the process. But juggling a fiancé, hiding out from her former best friend and managing her job at the family vineyard isn't easy. And as sparks start to fly between Honor and Tom, they might discover that their pretend relationship is far too perfect to be anything but true love.

Honor Holland has been ‘friends with benefits’ with her oldest school friend, Brogan, since they were both freshmen in college. Technically she’s been in love with him for some 17 years, but when her doctor has the ‘tick-tock, tick-tock’ talk with her, Honor decides it’s now or never to profess her love and suggest she and Brogan get hitched (they’re not getting any younger, after all). What follows her proposal is the worst ever let-down and simile in the history of language – whereby Brogan compares Honor to a favourite old baseball glove; one you pull out for a bit of good luck during a hard match, but that you don’t rely on all year round. 

Ouch. 

Even worse is when Honor’s best friend, Dana, ends up with Brogan’s ring on her finger a few weeks later . . . apparently in a crazy, spontaneous ‘we-just-knew-it-was-right’ love match.

Honor is shattered, but resigned.

Tom Barlow is a British mechanical engineer and professor at a nearby college. He’s staying in Manningsport, California to be near his beleaguered almost-stepson. Tom was engaged to Charlie’s mother, before discovering that she was cheating on him . . .  then she got hit by a car and died. That was a few years ago, now Charlie is a sullen teenager dressed all in black who seemingly doesn’t care one way or the other if Tom’s university can’t renew his green card and he returns to the UK forever. 

Then Honor’s grandmother, Goggy, has the crazy idea to set these two up (arranged marriages have been known to work) and sparks might just fly.

‘The Perfect Match’ is the second book in Kristan Higgins’ contemporary romance ‘Blue Heron’ series. 

So, I loved first book ‘The Best Man’ (which was also my first ever Kristan Higgins book, leaving me to wonder what else of hers I'd been missing out on!). I went into this second novel full of high-hopes and prepared to swoon all over again . . .  but I came out a little “meh”. 

I initially said that I'd never read a Kristan Higgins book because they all seemed too sugary-sweet, with none of the meatier barbs I quite like to read in my romances. Now, ‘The Best Man’ was by no means ‘Anna Karenina’ on the beleaguered-romance scale – but heroine Faith Holland did have a rotten streak with men, and her hero Levi Cooper was definitely donning armour. Then Higgins offered up Honor Holland and Tom Barlow – two people with quadruple the number of prickly problems that Faith and Levi had.

For one thing, Honor is humiliated when her best friend, love of her life and no-strings-attached bedroom-partner calls her the equivalent of his favourite baseball glove (to get him out of a slump? I guess?) and then goes and gets engaged to her (back-stabbing) best friend – but still wants them to remain close and put the awkwardness of her proposal behind them and move on. Not to mention her doctor is telling her she’s got to get a move on if she wants babies, and online dating websites bring up no potential hunnys in the Manningsport area. Tom is just as damaged – cheated on by his fiancée before she died, leaving him in limbo with her son who he now sees when his guardian grandparents allow, but who is harbouring a deep-seated resentment towards Tom, blaming him for his mother’s death. Phew. I thought, surely, with that much heaped on these two characters Higgins would be pulling out all the lovey-dovey stops to counteract all that heavy stuff. Sadly, I never felt like ‘The Perfect Match’ reached any sort of desirable romantic heights.

Tom and Honor come together for a sort of contractual arrangement – he for a green card, she for the potential of marriage and babies. Though these two start out with sparks flying and heat simmering;

“You understand how things are built,” she said. It sounded vaguely dirty.  

“Yes.” 

“You know how to . . . get things going.” 

His eyes dropped to her mouth. “Mmm-hmm.” 

“You’re good with your hands.” 

He leaned forward. “Are you flirting with me, Miss Holland?” he asked, his voice low.

Tom’s guard goes up when Honor moves into his home and Charlie still proves a battling sullen and sad teenager. Not to mention, Tom already went through the heartache of loving one woman who cheated on him, he’s never thrilled to see Honor light up whenever she sees Brogan.

The thing is, I loved how much of a battle Faith and Levi had before them in ‘The Best Man’ – and Higgins certainly had them conquering their demons. But I don’t think she ever got there with Tom and Honor.

For one thing, the Brogan/Dana storyline drops off far too quickly. Even though it’s set up as the big heartache of Honor’s life, Dana and Brogan and their in-your-face happiness are sporadically mentioned in a few chapters and then hardly at all throughout the rest of the book. But that was a great set-up, I thought, and right up until the end I wanted to know what was happening with that story – especially as Honor’s potentially lingering feelings for Brogan were a concern for Tom.

For another, I think Honor was quite hard done by in this book, and her romance never turned into the sparkly fairytale I thought she deserved after such heartache. At one point, Tom has this to say about her: “She was lovely. She had no idea, did she? Granted, he hadn’t exactly been struck with lightning the first time he’d seen her . . ” and, look, that’s fine. Far be it from me to want all contemporary romance heroines to look like Scarlett Johansson or be the sort of Mary-Sue’s who every male character fall head-over-heels in love with. But after being compared to an old baseball glove, and after reading Tom’s recounting of how he met Charlie’s mother (that was a love-at-first-sight set up, it would seem, since she was absolutely beautiful) I felt really terrible for Honor. When even the guy she ends up with has this to say about her; “But hers were the type of looks that grew on a person.” Maybe it’s far truer, but for all that Honor had been put through I wanted her to have a real Cinderella moment. 

Maybe I also felt that way because I also didn’t think that Tom and Honor ever fell for one another on a more intimate, intellectual level . . . this, I felt, was proven by the slap-dash high-octane ending of the book that throws them together once and for all. 

This book didn’t work for me the same way that ‘The Best Man’ did. Sure, I’ll read the next ‘Blue Heron’ book (this time about Faith and Honor’s friend, bartender Colleen – though I would have appreciated even a little bit of set-up for her book #3). I think I just wanted either a more intimate romance for Tom and Honor, or for Honor to have a real fist-pumping Cinderella moment after the glove simile (seriously that was just . . . brutal).

2.5/5