Review: Good and Bad...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2013
This author is hit and miss with me.  There are some of her stories that I really love and others that I absolutely abhor.  This one was just ok.If you are familiar with this author you know that many people think that she cannot write "grovels".  Apparently, this book proves us wrong.  However, it would seem that her grovels are limited to the h's. When they have done something wrong they must be made to suffer the majority of the book.  In this book, the H treated the h terribly after their reunion of twenty years because the h had broken up with the H twenty years ago.  During the separation, the H had moved on with his life and been gloriously happy.  Despite this, he was still bitter and petty to the h upon their reunion.  He did this the majority of the book, going as far as demanding that the h just stay to help the H's kids.  It was definitely interesting to see that the h pretty much did everything she could for the H and his kids (from his former wife) to make amends for breaking up with him.  When the H read the h's diaries, he realized why the h had broken up with him and what his lack of action meant to the h.  Yet, all of the H's hurtful actions were cleared up in a day.  No grovel needed there.  There was no making amends to how he treated her when she came back or for his resentment or his lack of action.  Other than one conversation with the h that was void of any apology for all the terrible hurt that he had caused her.  In the book it stated how incredible it was for him to only need one day to right all of his wrongs.  This is really my huge issue with this book.  Clearly, this author has different standards in gender.  Such a double standard is very disappointing to have in such a talented author.  This is true with all her books that I have read but it is VERY clear in this story.  The H does not have to make amends or even apologize at times but there is always something that the h has to apologize for or like in this story, the h has to grovel for half of the book for her wrong doings while the H only needed one day.  Again, very annoying.On the positive side, the story was good.  I usually have a hard time reading stories where the H has loved another woman and that woman dies.  In a lot of these stories it is impossible to compete with a ghost.  Add to this burden children that have to heal from the loss of the OW.  In these stories, the h usually ends up being the stand in to what the OW was before.  You did not get the sense with this story.  Once the H was done emotionally beating the h up, the readers saw the potential of the relationship that the H and h had.  Again, it bothered me how long it took for the H to stop hurting the h, but the last half of the book was better.  The other thing I enjoyed was all the characters in the story.  I really enjoyed the kids; even the ghost of the dead wife was very likeable and well developed.  The reader never feels that the H was settling with the h.  Character development is definitely this author's strength.