Review: Finding Love With Two Good Men
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 13, 2011
Zarah's having a really bad week.  After getting a traffic ticket, Zarah comes home to find her live-in boyfriend of about 18 months with another woman.  Once her life is packed up in the back of her old car, Zarah hunts down a new place to live and finds it in a complex owned by Mack and Rita Davis.  When she literally bumps into Jack, fireworks ignite between the two of them but Zarah quickly disappears.  Lane, Jack's best friend for 25 years is intrigued and interested when Jack describes meeting Zarah and the sparks that flew between them.  Once they realize that she's moved into the building, Jack and Lane pursue Zarah.  However, after being in a relationship with someone who was unhappy with her 230-pound frame and her caramel skin tone, it's hard to believe that they both want her, together.  Will the duo scare the skittish Zarah away or convince her that she can have more than she ever dreamed?I was so happy to find that Zarah really was a plus-sized character and that the author didn't try to call her plus-sized at a size 14.  The self-doubt that Zarah felt is so true to life, though I imagine any woman, regardless of size, feels those things when they walk in on their long-term boyfriend with another woman.  I have to say that I was totally frustrated with Zarah after her last fight with Jack - it felt repetitive since they'd already worked through something very similar.  It was realistic - a woman who's been hurt and is learning to trust again needs constant reassurance - but boy was I annoyed with Zarah.This is a well-developed story, with the relationship between Jack, Zarah, and the secondary characters deepening over time.  I was so pleased that Jack and Zarah had their little romance - that he understood she needed baby steps and worked with that as best as he could.  The story seems to be fulfilling on multiple levels - Jack, Lane, and Zarah find love, Zarah finds friendship, the Davis' find a little family of their own to take care of, etc - and I think that contributed to my overall enjoyment of the story.I appreciated that Jack and Lane spent so much time building Zarah up.  Jack was just about perfect - attractive, hard-working, honest, and imperfect.  Sometimes, it's nice to read about a hero who doesn't always do or say the right thing, as long as he knows how to make it better.  I wasn't keen on Lane at the beginning of the story, but he sort of grew on me.  He didn't get enough "page time" to really develop into a deeper character.  You as a reader do eventually feel that he cares for Zarah, but they don't really have a romance like Zarah and Jack have.  If you read the follow-up story,Reclaiming Zarah, there is definitely additional depth to Lane and the relationship he has with Zarah.The story is well-written and, to me, is a great bargain when you get 5 to 6 hours of reading from this (Kindle) story.  Overall, this is probably a 4.25 to 4.5 for me.  I've already read it twice and greatly enjoyed it both time.  Definitely check out the long epilogue,Reclaiming Zarah, if you'd like to see what happens next.