By Kristan Higgins

This is my third Kristan Higgins book I have read, each one more funny and endearing than the last. It has been years since I have discovered an author that I am so excited to read that I literally am tempted to call in sick to finish the book and start on the next. All of my other fun reading is on hold. Her dialogue is absolutely hilarious, the situational comedy is laugh-out-loud funny. The heroines are (so far) sweet, nice, kind, attractive, women, but somehow can’t find true love. The heroes are fairly non-conventional and appealing with plenty of sexual tension. In two of the three, including this one, they go on blind dates which are worthy of the romantic comedy hall of fame. Yet, there are heart-tugging and poignant threads that had me wiping tears from my eyes. So far all three have gone off the reservation as far as typical plots and threads so that there is even some suspense as to the outcome (not the primary HEA, but some of the subplots.)How did I not discover her until a week ago? She rivals Susan Elizabeth Phillips (lightning, don’t strike me dead), Jennifer Crusie, and some of the funny Linda Howards. That’s the highest praise I can give.

2013

I always imagined God had a great sense of humor. He’d have to, right? Leon’s bright (fanatical?) blue eyes narrowed. “Yes, He is great. Are you a Christian? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?” “Well…sure.” Granted, I couldn’t ever remember anyone in my family (Mayflower descendants, remember?) ever using the term personal savior… We were Congregationalists, and things tended to stay a little more philosophical. “Jesus is also so…good.” And now I had Jesus, raising His head as He hung on the Cross. Wow. Thanks, Grace. This is what I get for dying?”

**upon my second read, 5 years later: Yup, still a 5. A fictional boyfriend trope, one of my favorites, it is also one of Kristan’s unreliable narrator stories. We see everything through her eyes and, at first, everything she says and does seems reasonable. We believe her view of her family is accurate. Slowly, we start to realize that that is not quite the case. In particular, there is one part where Cal, our hero, comments “You sure do a lot for your family.” She modestly agrees, and then he adds, “What do they do for you?” She is totally flummoxed by this question. She really can’t think of anything. There were a lot of interesting little and pretty big twists that I didn’t remember in this one, and a lot of usual tropes in the development of the romance thankfully avoided. **5 stars out of 5**

February 2, 2018