Review: Complicated love and  southern secrets
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 1, 2012
The title for this story is perfect. One of the relationship status options on Facebook is "it's complicated" The relationships in this story fit that bill to a T.In a way this story reminds me of Southern Gothics. With secret paternity, characters omitting things, telling white lies or outright manipulative lies. This leads to a number of unexpected plot twists. The good guys are great, just trying to make it through the mine field of life. The bad guys a pretty bad, perpetuating damaging lies.The setting is in Florida and the main character is a former high school football star and now an insurance agent. He has spent most of his life trying to make up for mistakes when he was young. In this story the past catches up with him in a big way. The past begins to look very different as secrets are revealed and relationships change.Taboos and "complicated" relationships are handled with care when they could have been just sensationalized. You get the feeling that these are real people just trying to figure out how to care for each other.I have enjoyed Mercy Celeste's other books and this is a lot riskier than her other works. It is also a longer tale at 11,000 locations.