Review: He Belongs to Me by Theresa Rizzo

Posted June 13, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

He Belongs to Me is a love story . . . a tale of betrayal and deception and of a young mother’s determination to recover what belongs to her.

Forced to leave her baby and tricked into relinquishing her parental rights, four years later Catherine Boyd is back and she’ll do anything to regain custody of her son–even reconcile with the husband falsely accused of killing their son’s twin.

All in the name of love for a little boy, generations of pain and tragedy are exposed in a courtroom drama.

When the book begins Catherine is graduating from Stanford and is so excited that her son, Drew, who is 5 or 6 is going to come live with her permanently. Her parents show up for the graduation with Drew but when Catherine asks why Drew only brought one suitcase with him the parents drop their bomb – Drew will continue to live with them as they are his legal guardians. What? Sarah and Eric, the parents, produce a document that Catherine signed that shows she gave made them Drew’s legal guardians. What Catherine thought she was signing was a document that just gave them permission to get Drew medical care, etc. while she was in school. Needless to say Catherine is distraught as all she wants is to be a family with her son.

Catherine decides that she needs to contact her estranged husband, Thomas. She believes that if they show they are reconciled (even if they truly aren’t) that her parents will give Drew back in a heart beat. After they get their son back they’ll then go their separate ways. Thomas is wary of the plan. He doesn’t believe that it will work and even states that if it doesn’t and they have to end up suing for custody he wants nothing to do with it. Well the plan doesn’t only not work but the parents (who are such conniving, backstabbing, manipulative people) try to get a restraining order against Catherine and Thomas and tell them that they are suing to get their parental rights revoked.

What ensues is a court battle that’s ridiculously enlightening for all parties involved and some horrible truths come out as the mudslinging begins. But will the judge decide in the favor of Catherine and Thomas or Drew’s grandparents.

Let me give you a little background info:

When Catherine is just 18 and Thomas 20 years old they get married. Soon after Catherine has twin baby boys Bobby and Drew. Because they are so young they are living in a wing of Catherine’s very wealthy parents’ house. Bobby ends up dying and Catherine’s mother ends up accusing Thomas of killing little Bobby and a trial ensues in which he’s acquitted. After he leaves jail he ends up going back to school in Michigan after some harsh words were spoken from Catherine. Catherine takes care of Drew but her parents bully her into going to Stanford and leaving Drew with them. See…manipulative. Getting Catherine to sign that paper when she’s just suffered the death of her child and the imprisonment of her husband and the poor thing’s only about 20 years old by that time.

When Catherine and Thomas get back together I had a feeling that it just wasn’t going to work. I really liked Catherine and her strength, although I really wish she would have really gotten mad at her parents at one point. She was mad but she was always contained and I wanted her to let loose. Thomas was a completely self-involved man. I honestly believed that he loved Catherine and Drew but loving someone and having them virtually change and take over your bachelor life are two very different things. I think he loved Catherine but I honestly didn’t feel this love and felt it was more about sex than love. He did stick with it all even when it got really rough so I have to give him points but it was almost too late in the book to redeem him by that time.

I really liked the writing style of this author and will look for things written by her in the future. She definitely made me feel the tension and emotion in the book, that’s for sure – maybe just not as much on the romance part, imho. Definitely readable but make sure you’re not looking for a light fluffy read when you pick this one up.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Theresa Rizzo