Rowena’s review of All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins.
Hero: Ian McFarland
Heroine: Callie Grey
One happily-ever-after rocking chair…
And no sign of any forthcoming babies to rock in ol’ Georgebury, Vermont. For Callie Grey, turning thirty means coming to grips with the fact that her boss (and five-week fling) is way overdue in his marriage proposal. And way off track, because Mark has suddenly announced his engagement to the company’s new Miss Perfect. If that isn’t bad enough, her mom decides to throw her a 3-0 birthday bash in the family funeral home.
I’m a big fan of Kristan Higgins. Out of all of her books, only one of her books didn’t make me jump for joy after I finished it. Kristan Higgins wrote a gem of a romance with this book and left me with a big fat smile on my face.
This book follows Callie Grey, who just turned 30 and had her 30th birthday party at her family’s funeral home.
Oh joy.
This book was great fun to read. Getting to know Callie was a riot to read. She was naive and optimistic and though it should have gotten on my nerves, it didn’t. I adored Callie. I thought she was just a fantastic. At first, the book started off slow but I’m thinking that it was because while I was reading it at work (naughty wench that I am), I kept getting distracted by that pesky thing called…work. It’s like my boss knew what I was doing and kept coming up with different ways to keep me from my reading. The book picked right up around Chapter 7 for more and I never turned back.
I adored this book. I fell in love with the characters, I fell in love with the town and I loved getting to know Ian right along with Callie. In my mind, I pictured Ian as Mack from The Unit. Even though I loved how uptight he was and how stiff and unbending, getting to know him made me realize that all of Higgins’ heroes come from the same mold. They’re all serious minded and mysterious and quiet…like Ian. But even though they’re all similar, I still loved Ian.
So Callie starts off in love with Mark, her first kiss, the popular guy from high school and now her boss. They had a fling that meant a lot more to her than it did to him and this book is her journey to getting over him.
It took a lot for Callie to get over him because she’s loved him for so long. It was that high school crush that never went away and while high school crushes are good and dandy, her crush just continued to grow and grow and grow. She did a lot of stupid things for him, (when he broke up with her, I wanted to stitch her mouth shut because emotional diarrhea was all over this one) and she gave new meaning to the “love is blind” thing because she just refused to believe that he wasn’t going to wake up one morning and notice her.
So Callie sets off trying to move with her life and she goes on some dates from eCommitment.com and those dates made me want to become a nun but eventually, she sparks up a friendship with Ian McFarland, the new vet in town and gets to know him pretty well.
Ian McFarland has been through some stuff and you could totally tell that he was not over his ex and I liked the way that Higgins brings Ian and Callie together. She didn’t paint Ian to be this mopey lovesick fool who couldn’t give up on the past, he was exactly what he was…a man who missed his ex-wife. I loved that Ian and Callie didn’t rush into this love affair that would have fizzled out over the course of a few weeks. Callie won Ian over and I loved that even when he was telling her how he was feeling, he was still confused about it all.
I thought it was lovely.
What I loved about this story is the way that it was told. The story came off to me like me and Callie were old high school friends who haven’t seen each other since high school and she was catching me up on her life. She was telling me how she met, fell in love with and married her husband, Ian and at the end of her tail, I was genuinely happy for her and knew that my friend was in great hands and truly happy. So would I recommend this book to you guys? You betcha because this book was a true gem of a romance and I’m so glad that I read it.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
I have been waiting for this book. Love the cover and love Kristan’s books. They are fun reads.
If Ian is not over his ex-wife, did you not feel like he was still on the rebound with Callie?
And…..we’re back to dogs on the cover!
She’s a whole lot of fun, I’m a big fan of hers and she doesn’t disappoint with this new release. Be sure to pick it up!
No, I didn’t feel that at all because it was Callie that went after him at first with Ian rebuffing her but she kept with the friendship and a love grew from there. It was well written and I completely enjoyed it.
I’ve only read one other Higgins, have another on my TBR, and it didn’t do it for me. So I’ve put off reading the other, too, although highly recommended.
Your review makes me want to pick up this one and pull the other off my TBR.
Good job!
I have read all of Kristan’s books, and I greatly enjoyed each one!
Finished this yesterday and really, really enjoyed it. I love that Kristan doesn’t hit the reader over the head about how great the hero is. We get to know him and appreciate him the way the heroine does.
Diana