Review: A Favorite Plot
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 11, 2013
I knew I would love this book the minute Emma took a tumble into the shrubbery just as she's seeing former love Rafe for the first time in years. Emma's mixed emotions and Rafe's sexy confidence won me over and had me rooting for these two from page one. And I didn't yet know the delicious surprise in store, for readers and for the lovers in this sometimes breezy, sometimes comic, always sultry summer romance. Emma and Rafe had broken up due to her wealthy family's various plots. Her father, for a reason that eventually becomes clear, left their $7 million beach house jointly to Emma and Rafe. If Emma does not visit the place for two years, Rafe inherits all.Rafe has made Emma's beloved summer home his own, but the terms of the will stipulate that Emma must live there for two weeks, and Rafe refuses to move out. These two clearly burn for each other, but each has a different reason to dislike, and in Emma's case, fear the other. Emma has a secret. When Rafe left her, he made it plain that he thought she'd never be a good partner or a decent parent. What Rafe does not know is that Emma has a child. Rafe's child. And she's doing a fine job of raising her little girl.Emma and Rafe come from different sectors of society. She's loaded with family money if not affection, he's working class with strong family bonds. Emma has made her own way in the world and doesn't care about her family's wealth. What she does care about is Rafe's reaction to the news that she has withheld his child from him for two years. Will he ever forgive her?This conventional plot device becomes new in the skilled hands of a gifted writer, and readers will nervously wonder right along with Emma what Rafe will do when he learns her secret. This is a deeply satisfying read that goes straight to the heart of what it means to be a family.