Review: very impressed and vey disappointed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2012
"I'm a left-leaning organic farming peacenik, and you're a dedicated member of the military-industrial complex."Soleil Freeman and West Morgan had a brief affair five months ago. Although they heated up the sheets, their short lived liaison was more notable for the fighting. Now, months later, Soleil is noticeably pregnant and still in semi denial. A child had never been in her game plan. Added to that, she is struggling with exactly how to (whether to) tell West. He is a Special Forces officer in the Air Force and has been back at his base in Colorado since their last and, as it turns out, most consequential encounter.But surprise! West has come back to town to take care of his father who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and he runs into a Soleil who has some explaining to do.After I read this book I was both very impressed and profoundly disappointed. I think my disappointment comes from the fact that this was a nice read, but there was a great read struggling to get out. There was so much here that the reader could sink their teeth into and, unfortunately, none of it got the treatment it deserved.This book touched on the following: political identity & idealism, divorce, single parenthood v. marriage, how children view their parents and vice/versa, the ways in which children internalize parental expectations, and how love works with all of these.I think the cover of the book is so incredibly misleading. It is not some bubbly tale of a secret baby. Soleil's pregnancy and her reconnection with West is the main story, but the subplots and secondary characters are very vital and interesting in the story and are much deeper than the cover implies. And therein lies my biggest problem. I was incredibly engrossed in West's struggle with dealing with the twin blows of impending fatherhood and the fact that his larger than life father was going through terrifying bouts of dementia. I was equally drawn in by Julia's, West's mother's, re-entry into the dating world (she and West's father have been divorced for many years) and the wonderful new guy she meets. And I was incredibly intrigued by the very prickly, yet fascinating relationship Soilel has with her famous, idiosyncratic mother. BTW, I loved Soleil's background -- her hippie, down with the establishment middle class white-bread mother becomes a radical and hooks up with a Black Panther who himself later becomes establishment thereby dooming that relationship. Lol. Soleil's mother is a One woman character play waiting to happen.SO when the book ends with only West and Soleil's relationship sewn up, I felt like I was cut adrift. Even the resolution of West and Soleil's relationship wasn't completely satisfactory. It seemed so incredibly rushed. The two of them were coming from fundamentally different places. I never felt the two of them came together adequately for each other. Sure they pledge their love, but it is a Harlequin, you expect that. I didn't completely feel it. Don't get me wrong, the author creates a great connect between the two but she really needed more pages to explore it more.And that is the crux of the issue for me. I think this book needed a good 100 to 200 more pages to really satisfy me. The writing here was very good and the characters were excellent. I simply needed more time with them.