Claire Summers works hard to balance her job as an elementary school teacher and her role as a single mother to her eleven year old daughter, Haley. With her free time, she does handyman jobs around their crumbling house to save money. After a bad marriage, she has sworn off men for a while… until her daughter writes a letter to a local philanthropic businessman and changes everything. Keith Watson spends longs hours in the office working for his kind boss, which leaves little time for social activities. When Keith stumbles upon Haley’s letter asking for help locating the son her neighbor gave up for adoption years ago, he dismisses it as childish fantasy. But his boss has other ideas and pushes Keith to take on this task. As Keith reluctantly digs into the past, he realizes he has his own demons to face. Claire and Keith find their lives intertwining one spring in ways they never expected, as one little girl’s kindhearted request touches several lives and leads to surprising endings.
This contemporary romance novel has predictable parts, but Irene Hannon also includes unexpected plot twists that keep the story interesting. The characters are all struggling with varying issues, whether it is regret for past mistakes, lingering and debilitating sickness, buried pain and abuse, or forgiveness for others’ wrongs, which allow parts of the novel to be realistic and identifiable. Ms. Hannon does a nice job of intertwining the stories of the various characters, allowing each to find healing through their interactions with each other. The book elicits both smiles and emotional reactions, allowing the reader to enjoy a novel that is not surface-based but has deeper concepts and communications. The writing style is simple but the book flows well and is easy to read. Overall, it is an enjoyable story, although some of the histories of the characters have much too convenient similarities and at times, the plot slows a bit. Nevertheless, this novel is a good contemporary story and is recommended for those who wish to read an interesting romance.
I received a copy of this book from Revell Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
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