Review: Too Good To Be True by Kristan Higgins.

Posted March 6, 2009 by Rowena in Reviews | 11 Comments


Hero: Callahan O’Shea
Heroine: Grace Emerson
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

When Grace Emerson’s ex-fiancé starts dating her younger sister, extreme measures are called for. To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace announces that she’s seeing someone. Someone wonderful. Someone handsome. Someone completely made up. Who is this Mr. Right? Someone…exactly unlike her renegade neighbor Callahan O’Shea. Well, someone with his looks, maybe. His hot body. His knife-sharp sense of humor. His smarts and big heart.

Whoa. No. Callahan O’Shea is not her perfect man! Not with his unsavory past. So why does Mr. Wrong feel so…right?

What a great first book to start off with by Kristan Higgins. An email buddy of mine, Diana and I began emailing about what books we like and what authors we love and this author was one of Diana’s favorites so when I saw the reviews of this book go up with great feedback, I decided to get this one and see if I would enjoy it as much as everyone else did.

I’m so happy to say that I did. This book is told in the first person POV but I still loved the romance between Callahan and Grace. I thought Grace was a fantastic heroine and I totally sympathized with her and I just..understood her. She was a hoot to get to know as well, from her first meeting with Callahan to when she told him, “And the second I get back to school, I’m going to Google you.” and just every little thing about this woman cracked me up. She made this book so funny and she had me turning each page, eager for more.

I will definitely be reading more from Kristan Higgins (thanks Diana!) because this story was a laugh a minute and the story unfolded like a great story should. The characters were great and they seemed like people I would really want to get know and I really enjoyed the way that Higgins told Grace’s story.

Grace was one of those characters that you wanted to meet in real life. She was one of those characters that you could see yourself taking those dumb dating classes with. You could totally picture her as one of your close friends. I thought Higgins did a great job of writing her character to be loving, caring and real. Her life wasn’t perfect, she wasn’t the perfect woman but thats what made her perfect. She had problems and she made mistakes and yet you couldn’t help but root her on as she took on every new adventure she had going for her and as light and funny as this book was…it was also very emotional at times.

We can’t always be comedians all the time and Grace’s story was exactly like that. She was funny and she was great but she was also sad and lonely. She went through a lot and she’s a better woman than I could ever be with some of the things that she went ahead and let happen. Her ex fiance’ and her sister? I don’t know if I could have survived something like that but Grace did. She did it with well, grace and it made her a better person for it. It also made me sympathize with her and want her to find that person she is meant to be with. And man when she finally did, I did a happy dance for her that would rival Britney frickin’ Spears.

And Cal, oh Cal…what a dream boat he turned out to be and a hilariously funny one at that. His sense of humor kept me laughing all the while I was lusting after him and I thought him and Grace were perfect for each other right from the very beginning. Their first meeting had me laughing out loud (literally) and watching them battle one another while they were lusting after each other was too cute for words. I enjoyed his character and I enjoyed getting to know him and really, I just enjoyed the heck out of him.

So really, you should read this book because it’s good. It’s really good and I think you’ll enjoy it because I did. I did a lot. Kudos to Kristan Higgins for writing a fantastic book and thanks to Diana for recommending Higgins work to me.

This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


Tagged: , , , , ,

11 responses to “Review: Too Good To Be True by Kristan Higgins.

  1. M.

    I just discovered this author also, and read ‘Just One of the Guys’ first. Really enjoyed it. As I mentioned in my recent review (*I know, I’m shameless) distant past/future and superabilities and life-or-death stakes all have fully legitimate places on the entertainment meter, but sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that the ‘regular’ here and now is a good place to be also.

  2. I so enjoyed this book that as soon as I finished it, I turned back to the first page and began rereading! I have loved all of Kristan’s books.

  3. I can’t wait to read this one! I loved Kristan Higgins’ other books. She does heroines that are “real”, so incredibly well: easy to relate to, identify with, and want to be friends with. Her supporting characters are also loads of fun.

    Glad to hear this one lived up to my high hopes for it!
    Thanks for the great review. It gave me lots of info without telling me too much of the plot! 🙂

  4. Thank you Rowena! It sounds like a ‘feel-good’ book. One you’d read on a rainy Sunday morning in bed 🙂 Sorry….probably TMI! Obviously I need to hunt down Kristan Higgins books!

  5. Anonymous

    Rowena, you’re welcome. I’m so glad you enjoyed this book. You should totally read Catch of the Day next. So, so good!!!

    Diana

  6. Rowena

    Thanks everyone for the comment! Diana, I started Catch this morning…its cute so far.

  7. Kaetrin

    I’ve become a total fangirl too. Have read all of Ms. Higgin’s novels now and (even though I usually do not like 1st person stories) I have loved them all.

    I have pimped them out too and friends who do not usually read contemporary romance novels have loved them too.

    I just finished this one and I loved Cal – he was so sweet, especially with the whole Gone with the Wind thing.

    Love the dogs in Ms. Higgins’ stories too.

  8. I loved this book – laughed all the way through (and kind of teared up at one point near the end). I’ll be reading more books by KH. She’s very good! This is the book I’ve been recommending and everyone who read it thanked me!

    Love your blog : )

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.