You know the saying about not judging a book by its cover? Maybe we should also add “Don’t judge a book by its title” because OMG this book was NOTHING like what I was expecting. And this time, it wasn’t a bad thing!
Allison fell deeply in love with - and married - rich widower, Burke. But things have been strained lately. Unbeknownst to Allison, Burke’s theater in Branson, Missouri is struggling financially, and she only finds out when his business partner lets the info slip after Burke leaves in the middle of his own birthday party to deal with an issue at the theater. Before he can get there, he’s in a terrible car crash, which sets in motion a potential for disaster with his business.
This book kept me engaged. There was a lot going on...Allison and Burke’s marriage, Allison’s struggle to have a relationship with her stepdaughter, the stepdaughter’s relationship with her boyfriend, the attempted takeover of Burke’s business. It all made for a fast paced story.
Then we have the dead wife’s letters to Burke that Allison reads, which is what I thought this book would mostly be about. Except it really wasn’t...
With all that was going on, I couldn’t help but feel nothing was given the full attention it deserved, and nothing had an adequate resolution. I think this book wanted to be a romance, but also a suspense/mystery/thriller. Except we meet the hero and heroine when things are already strained between them, and there’s no good reconciliation scene at the end (and for what Burke pulled, there needed to be an apology and groveling). And the situation with the business was resolved off page, which was so anticlimactic!
I read this book in less than 24 hours - which hasn't been the case for me the past several months. The plot was fast paced, and the story was compelling. I went in thinking this would be a heartbreaking romance about a woman sitting at her husband’s hospital deathbed fighting for their marriage, and got something nowhere near close to that. The cover and title were cleverly deceptive! However, I feel the execution of the plot was a little all over the place. I’m still not sure what the author was trying to accomplish by having the heroine read the first wife’s letters because they didn’t help ME feel like I knew Burke better, and I'm not sure how they helped Allison fight for her marriage. And for a book where the villain had mob connections, things were fairly tame and resolved with little fanfare.
All that being said, I liked the writing, and I liked the characters. So even though this book didn’t completely work for me, I’ll definitely give Janet Dailey another read.
* thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books/Zebra for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review