Kristan Higgins

If You Only Knew

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By Kristan Higgins

“The one thing I hate about the wedding industry is that it focuses so much on the one day. People become obsessed with details, enraged with those they love, worn out from planning a few hours of a day that may not mean that much in the grand scheme of things. Even as I’m designing a dress that will cost thousands and thousands of dollars, I’ve always tried to work that message in. Don’t forget that after this day comes thousands of other days. Be careful. Cherish each other. Don’t blow it.”

Everything I loved about Kristan Higgins and then some. She brought the tears, she brought the dog, she brought the laughs, she brought secondary characters you can root for and some you can loathe. She brought a complicated relationship with her mother. She brought the romance. She has you cheering, laughing, and weeping. In short, Kristan Higgins. But longer and more complex. The development of Rachel’s character was beautifully realized and didn’t come easily. Even her cheating husband Adam, had some complexity and nuance. Jenny’s character wasn’t so much developed, as awakened. Loved the little addition of Evander’s story, the 11-year-old child piano prodigy that Jenny’s Leo is teaching. Reading this book has made me realize I don’t like romance fiction. I love good women’s novels that have romance in them. I will end this review with a quote that made me stop and pause. “I wish in one sharp, abrupt swell, that I could stay. What a beautiful word that is. Stay with me. Stay home. Stay alive.” Stay writing, Kristan Higgins.
**rereading 8/2018*** spoilers below***
Yep, still a five. The narration by Xe Sands and Amy Rubinate as the two sisters, was excellent. I would have to say this is probably one of my top 3 favorites. I’m glad the quite annoying mother was rehabilitated. Interesting that Jennie never did tell her sister or mother about Dad’s infidelity. Of course, for the best. Loved the Kimber, Evil mother-in-law, and Jason(?) subplot. Would have loved to have seen them make an appearance in Good Luck with That as I would have seen a hint of Rachel getting a little hope of romance with Gus. Jenny is one of my favorite KH characters, and I loved Rachel too. Both are such good women, but so different. Every one of her minor characters was so brilliantly drawn, from the sympathetic, to the contemptible. I loved the path Kristan took with the mother. She didn’t really change, but Jenny’s perception of her did.**5 stars out of 5**

10/15/2023 on Audible. It’s been 5 years.
Still 5 stars. As much as I love her early books, she really turned a corner with this one. Really nothing to add to my original review.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Next Best Thing

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by Kristan Higgins

This is not my favorite Kristan Higgins book, entirely due to my disapproval and borderline dislike of Lucy, our widowed heroine, and her Aunts and mother, the Black Widows. Not to mention her In-Laws, who were just disgusting sometimes. Ethan was way too good for her and his family, and I do not see why he loved her so much. Ethan is so clearly superior to dead Jimmy in every way that her failure to appreciate him and deserve him was just eye-rolling. She was annoyingly obsessed with her dead husband. Watching her wedding video practically every night. Please. She was also way too slow to take control of her career and to stop wasting her talents. Jimmy was portrayed as too perfect and too good to be true. It is later in the book that we start to get hints that maybe he wasn’t as perfect as he was described.

**spoiler**

Ethan calling him “Saint Jimmy”, for example. KH kind of set the reader up for a big reveal regarding some weak or bad deeds that Jimmy might have done, but what rips the blindfold from Lucy’s eyes is such a mild error in judgement and taste that it turns into an anticlimax. While I’m on a roll criticizing my favorite author, there was a bit of a cheat near the end. After putting up with Lucy mourning her perfect marriage to perfect Jimmy throughout the whole book, she throws out, almost like an afterthought, that marital relations with Jimmy were “sweet” rather than hot and mind-blowing as sex with Ethan is. Huh? What? It just makes her look even more clueless for breaking up with Ethan. **end spoiler**

All that said, I did enjoy most of the book, on this re-read. I love the way Kristan Higgins adds little touches that add depth to her characterizations. For example, her making Jorge, her assistant in the bakery, mute. He is such a minor character and it was so totally unnecessary, that to make this choice in drawing the character is just so deft and thoughtful. It not only adds depth and interest to the story, but adds a level of needed likability to Lucy. Kristan does this in many of her books. The same treatment applies to the mean Doral (named after the cigarette brand, now that’s funny!), Lucy’s nemesis. As always, the humor, characterizations, smart dialogue, and plotting were top notch despite my quibbles with some aspects of the story. What is a 3 star effort from Kristan Higgins, would probably earn 4 stars from another author. I just hold her to a higher standard! **3 stars out of 5**

Rating: 3 out of 5.

February 18, 2018 (re-read)

Too Good to be True

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By Kristan Higgins

This is the 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**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

February 2, 2018

The Perfect Match

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By Kristan Higgins

A very strong finish saved this book from being 3 stars which is a very low rating for a Kristan Higgins for me. I did not like Charlie, Tom’s “stepson”. There was just no excuse for his behavior. He was just stupid. Even at almost the end, he was sullen and ungrateful. I would have liked to see him redeem himself much more sufficiently. Maybe in the next book, we’ll hear tell of an epiphany. Did not buy him at all. Or Tom’s devotion to him, for that matter. Talk about a glutton for punishment. The English accent was slightly too much. This book has the usual Kristan tropes, for example using a substitute cutsie-pie word for a genuine curse word. That got old 7 books ago. But still, she is a very talented and funny writer who can bring the tears as well as the guffaws. She can add suspense to a relationship even when you know you won’t be betrayed by the end. The highest praise for a romantic comedy is that she keeps you turning the pages in delight. Those authors are few and far between. (SEP is another one.) I already have #3 on pre-order.
***revised 05/02/2017****This time, I was much more OK with Charlie’s reformation. He did turn it around at the end and realized that Tom was his real father, not his bio-Dad. I still think Tom was too much of a saint to put up with him, though. The end still saved this book for me. I was on the edge of my seat and greatly moved at the same time through the climactic scene. One more note, brought up by a few other reviewers, is Honor’s constant dialogue with her ovaries. It was very tiresome. Very. **4 stars out of 5**

**Re-read on Audible 01/16/2026**

“Whatever happens,” Dad said, almost reading her thoughts, “you’re the heart of this family, Honor.”
The words were a gift, and Honor’s eyes filled.

After this re-read on Audible, I bumped this one up to 5 stars and I was left wondering why it was anything less. It was not that the narrator did a particularly outstanding job although except for her interpretation of the British hero Tom’s voice, she was excellent. And it was not that she did the accent poorly, it’s that she really didn’t commit to an accent at all. And this was a problem because much is made of him being British. It made his slinging British terms around like “Mate”, “Lad”, and “Brilliant” sound faintly ridiculous.

The two leads in this one are very good people. Honor is described as the heart of the Holland family whose adventures in love and life are the subject of Kristan’s Blue Heron series. She is competent, wise, responsible, patient, gentle, a hard worker etc. etc. In love with one man her whole life but who views her only as his best friend, she enters into an arranged marriage with Tom after the news of her friend’s engagement to her best friend gobsmacks her. At 35, her biological clock is ticking and Tom needs a green card to stay in the United States to be near his unofficial step-son. He is also a great guy. A very great guy. But everyone in his life, including his difficult teenage “stepson” does not appreciate him, takes advantage of him, and are very rude and even mean to him. He bears it with patience. Even though I felt so sorry for how he was treated by Charlie, the son of his dead fiancé, his former fiancé’s parents, and Charlie’s deadbeat Dad, he did not frustrate me with his weakness. Because he was not weak really. Just a very loving father figure who would put up with almost anything to be near and support Charlie. After their initial suspicion due to their protectiveness of their beloved Honor, The Hollands welcome Tom and Charlie into their lives. This is the story of Honor and Tom’s arranged marriage and how they fall in love. As always with Kristan, it is told with heart and humor.

This time it was not Charlie that got my goat so much, (though he did) but Honor’s Grandparents, Goggy and Pops. They drove me up a wall and the consequences of their foolishness came home to roost with a vengeance in the final scenes of the novel. I love the little details Kristan Higgins introduces to paint a picture and add humor. For example, the demure Honor is addicted to gruesome medical documentaries which she watches with her brother Jack. “The Mysterious World of Pork-Borne Illnesses,” and “Top Ten Tumors” among them. And I do have to correct something from my previous reviews. It is not her ovaries that Honor has a continuing dialogue with but her sex-starved eggs. And this time I thought much of it was pretty funny.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

May 2, 2017

The Best Man

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By Kristan Higgins

After re-reading this first book in the Blue Heron series, it still earns 4 stars from me. The love story between “Princess Super-Cute” and Levi, the taciturn law-man, still charmed me. I had forgotten that Faith was not always the people-pleasing little sweetie-pie that she is throughout the book, and that she harbored a dark (in her mind) secret involving her mother’s death that changed her. I had also forgotten that Levi, the chief of police had some demons to slay as well. The confrontation scene that accomplishes that is so very satisfying. No one brings the chuckles and the tears better than MS Higgins! The scene where the gardener, Jane, seeming a lovely woman reveals her true colors is so funny! She seems a perfect match for their father, whom they are trying to lure away from the totally inappropriate Lorena (she redoes her roots with a sharpie). Kristan sets it up perfectly. Jane turns out not to be just a vegetarian, but a “rawist”. (She doesn’t eat anything that has been cooked.) 

The veggie platter was supposed to serve twenty but at the rate Jane was going, she’d polish that off then start on the table, which was hopefully gluten-free…she picked up another handful of carrots and started chainsawing through them, little flecks of orange flying from her lips. ‘You should try it. I have literally no mucus issues anymore. And I’m never constipated.’

I think it’s safe to say that Kristan Higgins does not hold with eccentric dietary requirements.**4 stars out of 5**

**Re-read 03/2026 on Audible**
Once again, I find myself upping a Kristan book from 4 stars to 5. Nicely performed by Amy Rubinate. She managed to convey emotional journey of Levi Cooper, the hero, by softening his voice as his story went on.

Yes, there were problems with the words and phrases that Kristan used that made me a bit uncomfortable. But this was written over 10 years ago and there has been a lot of progression over the years. So I do not judge based on the way things are now. Just like I do not judge books written 50 or 100 years ago either. Of course there is her humor which really clicks with me. It is not often I find myself laughing out loud at what is happening or said in a book even though I am often easily amused.

Faith and Levi’s younger days and how they resolve their issues hold some genuine touching and eye-watering moments as well. These are two very fully realized characters whose layers are revealed gradually throughout the story. It is the first of the Blue Heron series, all of which I have read several times. A lot of characters are introduced and are so intriguingly drawn, that it is no wonder I just gobbled them up when I first discovered this author. The romance is built brick by brick, slowly and gradually. It built the tension brilliantly and had me wondering and anticipating how she was going to bring these two, who are so far apart, together at last (even though this is probably the 4th time I’ve read it!) It had been awhile, and I had forgotten a few things happened in the story. I think it is one of her best books from the romance standpoint alone.

It is very romance forward. Her more recent books are more “women’s fiction” with the romance part taking more of a back seat. These days, I do prefer that. Even back when I first read this, a romance had to bring much more to the table then just the relationship building between the two protagonists By that I mean, more than just working towards the big pay-off scene. Kristan has always delivered this for me. She may have her oft-repeated little scenes and quirks, but they still entertain, and her overall plots and characters are always fresh.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

April 30, 2017

My One and Only

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By Kristan Higgins

***09/26/2022 reread on audible***Still 5 stars. I still consider this one one of her best. Complex characters, very romantic, very emotional, very funny. I do have a slightly different take from my January of 2017 thoughts below. Nick more than met Harper halfway all through the book. She was the love of his life and he was upfront about that from the beginning. But because of her abandonment by her mother on her 13th birthday, she was “emotionally constipated” and unable to give herself freely and wholeheartedly to a relationship. As much as she loved Nick, she had a fear of commitment that kept her one foot in, and one foot out of their marriage. So this time, I was glad that she desperately ran after him and got the ferry stopped in the most dramatic way possible. Nick deserved to be run after for a change. It restored some balance to the romance which, this time, I thought was sorely needed.***

**January 2017 reread***I believe this is her best of her earlier books. It has some of the most comedic scenes and wittiest, snappiest dialogue, despite the irritating habit of making up a signature expletive for her heroines (Oh Crotch!). The scene with the bear and the napping old horse was a scream.

**Spoilers**

It is insightful and one of the most moving. The relationship between the two protagonists, in fact, all of the relationships, were very well developed. You could see both of their sides, though I, at least, felt that our heroine was more justified and Nick was more at fault in their initial break-up. I like that he stepped up at last and shouldered his share of the blame. I just wish Harper had not run after him like she did. I would have liked it better if he had not got on the ferry and was heading back to her. It would have been more right. My heart was in my mouth at her meeting with Linda and when she got the letter. And I was sobbing during her Her reconciliation with her Dad and the scene with her stepmother, Beverlee. It was so well done. Not only one of Kristan’s best so far (top 3) but one of the best I have read of this sort ever.**5 stars out of 5**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

January 29, 2017 (re-read)

In Your Dreams

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By Kristan Higgins

Then again, her family dinners consisted of carefully modulated voices swapping bitter insults disguised in psychobabble, compliments from Angela and grunts from herself. Topics of discussion included self-actualization, repressed memories and why Emmaline was wasting her life, with a side of martinis.

In Your Dreams is another first class romantic comedy from Kristan Higgins. Although not in my top 5 of her books, it contains her usual humor and pathos . It’s not everyone who can include slapstick, witty banter, and situation comedy (the Norman-Bates wedding?)while always bringing a tear to your eye. Everything was fine. She is not losing her touch, as so many writers seem to, eventually. The one quibble I had with this one was that there was no cathartic comeuppance for the “bad guys.” Emmaline’s ex-fiancé and ex-“big guy” and his abusive fitness trainer bride just did not suffer at all from their unjust and mean treatment of our heroine nor their over the top healthy lifestyle. Kristan delivers on the comic fodder here! Apparently they live happily ever after. There was a long flashback setting up the very well fleshed out Kevin character (no pun intended) and how he came to treat Emmaline so unjustly, but all that build up just did not pay off in him getting his just desserts (again, no pun intended) despite a bit of closure near the end. The wedding was fraught with comic and dramatic possibilities that went unrealized. The “big scene” was a disappointment, starting off well, but just kind of withering on the vine. I also felt that huge opportunities were lost on the distaff side with Jack’s psycho southern belle ex-wife. The build up was so great, but there was never any real catharsis. He had her number and, yes, Hayley finally revealed herself in all her damaged psychotic glory, but not publicly, and ultimately managed to turn it around to unjustly reflect poorly on Emmaline. Not enough good triumphing over evil for me. However, despite the lack of my seeing enough Karmic pay-off, Kristan has delivered again. She remains an automatic buy from for me.**4 stars out of 5**

**11/22** Listening to this title on Audio read by Amy Rubinate. Prefer her greatly to Xe Sands, her usual reader.
Enjoyed this very much on audio. (No surprise.) My original thoughts and opinions have not changed from my first read. I just want to add that jack’s PTSD and his refusal to acknowledge it was very irritating. His constantly blaming himself-ARGHH. I also thought blaming Emmeline for Hadley’s meltdown was way too much. It was never acknowledged that it was Emmet’s (the deputy’s) fault for not checking on her in her cell. So it’s still a 4-star KH. But grading on the curve.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

April 26, 2017

Just One of the Guys

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by Kristan Higgins

Original review 06/12/2013

I was a little disappointed in this one, my 5th, by Kristan Higgins. the laugh out loud hilarity balanced by the poignancy such as in Catch of the Day, All I ever Wanted, and Too Good to be True is not as strong in this one. I would put it on par with Somebody to Love. the ending was much too rushed and the motivations of the hero for rejecting Chas up until the final page were murky to say the least. Still…a very talented writer. am willing to put up with the occasional disappointment to capture the lightning in a bottle I am finding with most of her books.**3 stars**


***reread 01/25/2017***** On audiobook and Kindle. I did bump this up a star. Despite its lame ending and Trevor’s confusing behavior throughout the book, the humor was top-notch, and loved the large family dynamic. Lots of secondary characters, each of which was well-developed with unique personalities. **4 stars out of 5**

**updated review of audible re-read. 07/16/2023**
**spoilers**
Welp, back to 3 stars. I just couldn’t handle the behavior of hardly any of the characters this time. Our heroine for her constant mooning over Trevor and his “chocolate eyes” while dating and shagging Ryan. Ryan was an arrogant egotistical d.ckhead so that’s another mark against Chastity for ignoring all of the red flags. I take that back. He was a typical surgeon-excuse me-Trauma surgeon, after all. He had some good qualities away from work or talking about work, but he was totally unsuited for Chastity. I bet he would have lost his good qualities if she had married him, though. Trevor was horrible to Chastity for no reason ever explained. He wouldn’t let her alone even though at the time he rejected her and told her to marry Ryan. He came across as not too bright.
Chastity’s brothers for not ever finishing her bathroom despite getting paid for it years ago. And her father for his treatment of his wife when he supposedly loved her so-o-o-o-o much. He was arrogant and controlling and selfish. He firmly believed he was entitled to her love and loyalty no matter what he did. Again, not the sharpest knife in the drawer either. Again another mark against Chastity for not understanding why her mother had to finally move on. The only one with any sense was Chastity’s mother for finally ditching her handsome loser of a husband. And what’s with Ryan and Lucinda or Luella or whatever her name was from the paper being a couple at the end? No Way would Ryan date her!

Rating: 3 out of 5.

January 25, 2017

Waiting On You

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By Kristan Higgins

Regrettably, to be fair to her other books which I enjoyed more, I’ll have to give this one a 3. It had all the prerequisite Kristan Higginsisms. I really liked the hero and heroine (even though she was quite overbearing and full of herself), though they were more stereotypical in their ways than some of her characters from other books. Funny scenes? check. but somehow, not laugh out loud funny. Touching situations? check. But not enough to bring tears to my eyes (much). Nice people are rewarded and Mean people get their comeuppance, but did not suffer quite enough. It would have been a 4 but for 2 very annoying characters: Bryce, the hero Lucas’s brother, was just too stupid: and not in a funny way, but in a way that did real harm to those I really liked. The second was Colleen’s mother. She provided some comic relief, but her overarching weakness was just a pall on the book. The third thing was that the reader was teased throughout the book about the identity of her twin Connor’s new girlfriend, but the mystery is never answered. Kind of a cheat. Likely the 4th Blue Heron will delve into that, which would be perfectly fine with me.
****revised review*****04/08/2017. Some of my complete opposite reactions on this read might be to the fact that I listened to this one on audible rather than read it. This one had a lot more heartache and tragic situations than many of her books. Lucas’ Dad, his treatment from his aunt, his aunt’s treatment of her husband Joe, Colleen’s heartbreak. Even Ellen’s unrequited love for her husband and loss of the baby, Colleen’s dad’s rejection of his children by his first wife, Gail’s treatment of her daughter Savannah (redeemed near the end), Gramps, Brice’s eulogy for his father, Joe’s death. There’s more. But it had it’s share of triumphs and laughs as well. Evil villains are really evil, and other evil villains (Savannah’s mother) are not as evil as you think.  Tears were shed, throat was aching, and the snorts of laughter were many. Some things did get tedious and trite: “Mia” and “Spaniard” nicknames, “sphincter”, Brice’s surfer vocabulary: Dude! Word!, the repetitive descriptions of Colleen and Lucas’s sexual attraction, for example. Since I now know the out come of Connor’s story, in one of her best books, the 5th Blue Heron, which run’s semi-concurrently with this one, the main reason for my 3 star rating is removed. So almost a 4 star this time around. **4 stars out of 5**

Rating: 4 out of 5.

April 8, 2017

Fools Rush In

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By Kristan Higgins

But I felt stupid, crying by myself, and besides, Digger kept trying to climb up on my lap and lick the delicious combination of salty tears and Cheetos dust off my face. I pushed him down and blew my nose. I wanted to call someone….There was nobody. Nobody would understand. Boo hoo hoo. Pulling the afghan over me, I fumbled for the remote and clicked on the TV, unaware that the next day, everything would change.

This was the second to last book in my Kristan Higgins Marathon. This one started off slow, but I liked it more and more as the book went on. I always enjoy a good evil sister/good sister angle. Much of the humor in this one came from the reader being able to see through Millie’s crush from the very beginning, and her being so blind and clueless as to his true character and intelligence level. When is she finally going to see through him and recognize her true feelings for Sam? It kept me in a constant state of anticipation. (What will finally make the light turn on??) As it turns out, it is pretty bad. Kristan is very great at showing a character’s personality, rather than telling. It’s up to the reader to read between the lines. Kristan has a whole set of gimmicks that she uses in every single book. Someone should really do a spreadsheet. Cute interjection? lovable old people? unlovable old people? quirky townspeople? Secondary romance? older relative’s marriage on the rocks? Mean but misunderstood relative? check check check and check. Still, I enjoy even the clichés written by her, I get drawn in every time, into a funny, fun, and romantic comfort zone.

01/08/2023 Not too many thoughts to add upon finishing the audio version as a re-read. Xe sands is far from my favorite reader, but she was OK with this one. My last few sentences about Kristan’s little gimmicks do not really hold true, though, in this novel. This one does not include a family marriage on the rocks, and I don’t recall any quirky townspeople or cute interjections either. another common Kristan trope is not in play here either: a very difficult mother. However, it does include some other tropes: Gay best friends, solid best girlfriend, disastrously hilarious date, a fun local bar, and wonderful and flawless teenage boy beloved by all. But Kristan does these so well they just add to the enjoyment.
The drama near the end was very entertaining, believable, and added a good bit of tension, emotion, and suspense. I loved that the misunderstanding providing a final roadblock to the happy ending was resolved quickly, sensibly, and romantically. It was also pretty cute and funny. The ending in this one was particularly satisfying and touching. Lots of descriptors there in one short paragraph there!

**5 out of 5 stars**

Rating: 5 out of 5.

March 29, 2017