What if you got another chance at the life that got away?
L.A. accountant Megan Greene has a successful job, a handsome cardiologist fiancé, and a doting father. Surely they make up for her estranged sister and hypochondriac mother…and a niggling sense that something, somewhere, got lost along the way. But then Megan’s life falls spectacularly apart. Faced with the knowledge that neither her father nor her fiancé are the men she thought they were, she is loath to trust Travis — the high school boyfriend who never quite left her heart. But his reappearance stirs dreams she once reluctantly packed away, and forces her to confront her relationship with her sister — a bond that has been strained to the limit but has never quite broken. And amid the turmoil lies the promise of a future Megan never expected — one that may turn out to contain everything she really needs….
This is difficult to classify. It’s a romance, yes, but it’s more than a romance. It’s about a woman’s journey through life and the lessons she learns along the way. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did. I read it in about six hours (it always helps when the kids are gone). When I started it, I was immediately caught up in the story of Megan Greene.
The story begins when Megan is eighteen. Having just graduated from high school, Megan is still living at home and planning to go to UCLA in the fall. Though she’s going to major in accounting, Megan’s passion is fashion design. In a design class she’s taking over the summer, she is thrilled when she is told that she has real talent. Just when she thinks the summer can’t get any better, she runs into her old (and first) boyfriend, Travis.
However, the summer doesn’t end like she had planned. One day she was on top of the world with a boyfriend she was in love with, a possible career doing something she loved and a father that was her rock in the midst of the craziness that is her family. The next day, the boyfriend was gone and the possibility of a career in design was over. The only thing she had left was her father, the man that would never give up on her.
Fast forward ten years; Megan is content with her life, if not happy. Engaged to a cardiologist and about to make partner at her accounting firm, Megan doesn’t think life could get any better. Then she learns two things that devastate her life. Her father isn’t her biological father and her future husband has been having a relationship with a 19 year old floozy. Not only that, but someone is trying to sabotage her at work.
When she runs into Travis again, Megan is in the worst place she has ever been in her life. Travis isn’t in a much better place himself. Having left L.A. ten years before, Travis never planned on coming back. When his mom calls him asking for help with the family business, Travis can’t deny her. Running into Megan, the only woman he ever loved, was not something he planned on doing.
While this book was about romance between Travis and Megan, it was also about second chances. Megan thought she was happy, but overnight she lost everything that she thought was important. Her father, the man that she could always count on, refuses to acknowledge her as his daughter. The sister that made her life miserable growing up wants to be friends. Everything is turned around and Megan doesn’t know how to deal.
In addition to the romance, this book is about forgotten dreams. It takes a few life-changing events to make Megan think about what she really wants. It was wonderful reading about her finding her way back to the path she wanted to travel on from the beginning. All she has to do is convince Travis to go with her.
The characters in this book really make it what it is. Even the crazy-ass mom. I loved seeing the relationship between Megan and her sister, Leanne, develop. Leanne grounds Megan in a way that no one else has. She makes her take a look at herself without feeling sorry for herself. Without Leanne, this book wouldn’t have been as good as it was. Still, Megan and her strength stole the show.
4.5 out of 5.
This book is available from Pocket Books. You can buy it here.
Casee,
thanks for the review I was wondering about this book..
Thank you so much Casee. After reading your review – I want to read this book! It is so on my TBR list!
FYI – my first and favourite Susan Mallery book was The Seductive One. It was something about the grapes (not that I drink wine)…..
This really is a great book. I hope you both enjoy it!