Big Girls Don't Cry

Dundee, Idaho #6

by Brenda Novak

Sometimes Mr Right couldn't be more wrong...
For eleven years, Reenie Holbrook had the life she'd always wanted, but her once-perfect marriage is now over.

Reenie decides that the first step moving on with her life is to find work; after all, she has three young children to support. She's thrilled when she lands a job at the local school—until Isaac Russell, the man who triggered the unravelling of her marriage, accepts a temporary position there.

Sometimes Mr Wrong couldn't be more right...
Reenie doesn't care if the whole town admires Isaac...and she won't admit that, secretly, she admires him, too. But a friendship soon develops into a relationship with the most unlikely man...

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Audiobook, Fiction, Harlequin, Chick Lit

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s bestselling author career.

“I caught my day-care provider drugging my children with cough syrup and Tylenol to get them to sleep while I was away,” Brenda says. “It was then that I decided that I needed to do something from home.”

However, writing was the last profession she expected to undertake. In fact, Brenda swears she didn’t have a creative bone in her body. In school, math and science were her best subjects, and when it came time to pick a major in college, she chose business.

Abandoning her academic scholarship to Brigham Young University at the age of 20 in order to get married and start a family, Brenda dabbled in commercial real estate, then became a loan officer.

“When I first got the idea to become a novelist, it took me five years to teach myself the craft and finish my first book,” Brenda admits. “I learned how to write by reading what others have written. The best advice for any would-be author: read, read, read….”

Brenda sold her first book, and the rest is history. Now a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, she continues to publish two or three novels a year, in a variety of genres.

Brenda and her husband, Ted, live in Sacramento and are the proud parents of five children—three girls and two boys. Now that they are empty-nesters, she spends her free time babysitting her two grandchildren.

When she’s not with her family or writing, Brenda is usually raising money for diabetes research. To date, she's raised almost $2.6 million. Her youngest son, Thad, has diabetes, and Brenda is determined to help him and others like him. She also enjoys traveling, watching sporting events and biking--she rides an amazing 20 miles every day!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-...

Reviews

[Vintage · Rating 1 out of 5]

AAAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

FFFFUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK!

Brenda Novak ties with Penny Jordan in making her heroineS SUFFER!

I can't even go into the plot except for BIGAMY, BIGAMY, BIGAMY!

The heroines', yes plural, ex is without a doubt one of the worst assholes in fictiondom. Why I wasted time on this book as well as the sequel when I could be reading much more fun trash, I do not know. I was on chapter 3 Oy vey, to compound my stupid romance fest, I am watching The Bachelorette. Bummer. Boo fucking hoo. when I decided to check the author. Yep, it's Brenda Novak. Brenda Novak puts her characters though the ringer. Well, her female characters for the most part.

Uh oh, crying bachelor alert. Not only did someone NOT get a final rose from Jojo, but someone tossed their man-card under the limo. Jojo is monologuing as is the ditched bach.

PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU WANT SURPRISES.

Husband in the middle wants wife #1, but once he figures out she won't take him back decides to settle for wife #2. What a guy. Husband # 1 is without a doubt the worst ass-hat off all time. He is not only willing to ditch wife #2 for wife #1 but his kids from wife #2. No coming back from that.

Wife # 1 ends up falling for wife #2's brother.

And a dog dies.

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a Harlequin this was a pleasant afternoon of reading. Too bad I didn't have the insight to know beforehand that this was book #6 in the Dundee, Idaho series. I think it would be best if you try to read them in order.

A Baby of Her Own #1
A Husband of Her Own #2
A Family of Her Own #3
A Home of Her Own #4
A Stranger in Town #5
Big Girls Don’t Cry #6
The Other Woman #7
Coulda Been a Cowboy #8

Keith has a wonderful loving wife Reenie, two kids and a home in the country. So why then does he mess around with Elizabeth and get her pregnant? Oh, and he never tells her he is currently married. His logic is that he'll marry her also, have another child and buy another house. Of course, now he is stressed and it affects both marriages. For such a smart man he is one brick shy of a load.

Isaac, Elizabeth's brother, suspects that there is something wrong with Keith and he intends on finding out what it is. So he heads to Dundee, ID, thinking that the 'Other Woman' is no good. He soon finds out that not only is Reenie sweet, kind and Keith doesn't deserve her but his sister is the Other Woman. The story builds from there.

This book had me feeling sorry for both women- they each loved Keith so much and neither suspected that he was a bigamist. If nothing else, I was happy that Reenie and Isaac found each other.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series!

[Jacqueline J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle of the road read from BN. I typically enjoy her stuff and this one was pleasant. There wasn't a whole lot of romance. In fact this felt much more like something that came from the general/women's fiction shelf than a romance although of course there was a completed love story. It just took second place to the whole trauma of the bigamy. I am interested in reading the other wife's story though.

[Tmstprc · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kinda knew going into this it was a “how bad can it be?” book, but the blurb sounded interesting. Don’t you hate when the description is better than the execution?

Don’t you think the reader should feel some sort of emotion when they get all 3 sides in a secret bigamy situation? Shouldn’t you feel the hurt, the angst, the anger? Yeah, not happening here. The bigamist showed more emotion than the wives, not good.

1 I almost DNF’d at 87% star.

[TinaNoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooh, child. If I were a character in this book, I'd be gossiping about and waiting to hear gossip about these people every day.

In L.A. we have Isaac Russell and his sister Liz O'Connell. Liz is married to Keith a software developer who travels a lot.

In Dundee, ID we have Reenie O'Connell. Coincidentally, Reenie is also married to a guy named Keith. A software developer. Who travels a lot.

Isaac gets his first tickle of suspicion that something in the milk ain't white when Keith seems oblivious about a big accident in Sacramento where he was supposed to be last week. Isaac gets another tickle of suspicion weeks later when he sees Keith in a place where Keith isn't supposed to be. Isaac follows his spidey senses and discovers Keith's duplicitous life.

Isaac blows up everything in rather spectacular fashion. Reenie finds out her husband is married to another woman and has two kids with her, while Liz finds out she is the second wife and Keith's has three other kids with Reenie! Damn. So this book was messy in a good way.

I was really surprised to find out that this was a Harlequin super romance originally. It had such a women's fict feel since Isaac, Liz, Reenie and Keith all get POVs and so much of the bigamy drama takes center stage as a family issue rather than as a backdrop to romance.

I felt bad for Liz because well, I don't think she was treated well by Keith. But then she made a baller move that surprised me (and made me kinda cringe). But, like I said, this book is messy. And Liz is getting the sequel so they had to set the stage.

One thing I was amazed at was how civilized everyone seemed to be in the end. The five kids didn't act out. Reenie and Liz didn't pull out each others' hair and Keith, although as asshole, wasn't completely vilified.

Even though I liked the soap opera aspects of this book and all the fodder for dishy gossip on this convoluted family, I think it could have gone deeper, been a bit more emotional and fleshed out some of the reactions of the supporting players a bit. For instance, I found it puzzling that Keith's parents (who did not know of Liz's or their other two grandkids' existence) seemed to have no interaction with Liz or her kids. You'd think people who just found out they have two grandkids they never knew about would make some noise about that. But other than the revelation scene, they are curiously absent. I wonder if that'll be addressed in Liz's book (the next one up)?

I guess the fact that this is a HQ romance is the reason why the author couldn't go deeper and get stronger, more emotional beats from the characters.

Notice, I don't talk about the romance much -- between Isaac and Reenie. That is because it feels a little superfluous to all the drama. It doesn't really kick into high gear til about the last third of the book. It was ok but not what I felt was the strength of the story.

Brenda Novak is hit or miss for me but this one worked. I didn't read any of the previous books and didn't feel like I missed anything, but I will most def read the follow up and see Liz get her HEA.

Listened on audio and and Andi Arndt did a great job with narration.

[Camy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great. And the beginning - Keith, the bigamist’s, character illumination really, really spoke to me. It was needed insight at a needed time. Well done.

Liz irked me in the beginning, but by the end I began to see her a little more compassionately alongside Reeny’s evolving understanding of her, as well. I’d actually like to read her story and see if she gets together with Dave.

My concerns with the story:

1. the very, very annoying exoticisation of Africa, which by the way is a continent and not a country so the constant reference to it as this one mystical place was part of the problem.

2. I’m not totally convenice Isaac might not miss his field work. I’m skeptical of him readily icing up his passions, though I do believe love and family and community trumps all.

3. Why didn’t anyone have cell phones?

[Suzanne Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big Girls Don’t Cry is one of Brenda Novak’s earlier Dundee series books. I hadn’t read it when it came out, but I did just recently and found it hard to put down. She creates well-drawn, realistic characters and the protagonists in Big Girls Don’t Cry is no exception.

How do you live through a lie? What happens when you discover the man you love, the husband of your children, is also a husband and father to another family two states away?

When Isaac Russell finds it hard to believe how many business trips his brother-in-law makes to Phoenix and how upsetting it is to his sister Liz, Isaac decides to check into the situation, especially after he spots his brother-in-law Keith O’Connell at an airport headed to Boise, Idaho. Isaac follows, and can’t believe his eyes when Keith drives an SUV to the small town of Dundee, parks in the drive of a suburban house and is warmly greeted by another woman and three kids.

Reenie Holbrook married Keith, her high school sweetheart, settled down and began a family, but for the past nine years, her husband’s business travel takes him away from home two weeks out of each month. Reenie wants to buy a farm and settle down, but Keith balks. Isaac confronts Reenie with the truth about her marriage and her husband’s bigamy. He’s hoping Reenie is a typical “other woman”, but he finds her as much a victim of the deception as his sister Liz.

When Liz discovers the truth about her marriage, she separates from Keith, who apparently is choosing Reenie over her and moving to Dundee. Liz decided to move to Idaho to allow her children access to their father and Isaac goes along to make sure his sister is protected. He doesn’t plan on falling for his sister’s rival.

Ms. Novak has penned a sympathetic story showing the devastating impact of an irrational act on many lives. Liz is the hardest hit because she is the outsider, and her brother’s interest in Reenie seems another betrayal. It’s an adult novel in that bigamy is an adult situation, but Ms. Novak creates an enjoyable story of friendship and redemption in this well-written romance. I look forward to Liz’ story, The Other Woman.

[Jane Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story telling.

I liked the conflict and story surrounding a guy with two wives and keeping them secret from each other. Really kept my interest and hard to put down. I also liked the romance that happened later in the book.

There was some nice build-up tension toward the sex scenes.

This is book 6 in the 8 book Dundee, Idaho series. Each book can be read as a stand alone but I prefer reading them in order. Various characters have small parts in subsequent stories.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 304 pages. Swearing language: moderate plus the s*** word but rarely used. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 1 ½. Setting: current day mostly Dundee, Idaho plus California. Copyright: 2005. Genre: contemporary romance.

[Tia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I wanted more drama and this book was drama guaranteed! In this story the heroine is married to a bigamist! When the hero breaks it to her, that her husband has a whole different family that he "married" after her, things change. She takes more controls of her life, divorces her creep of a husband and starts to fall in love with the hero. The catch? The hero is her husbands second wife's brother. If that isn't complicated enough, well I'm not sure what is!

[Marie Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved revisiting Dundee,these books are simplistic & wholesome

[Suzie Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book six in the Dundee, Idaho series. Originally titled: Big Girls Don’t Cry published in 2005 has been retitled: Finding You. I must admit the first thirty pages I couldn’t stop singing Carrie Underwood’s “Two Black Cadillacs”. Reenie dated Keith in high school then married. Keith worked for a computer company in Dundee then they relocated to LA. Keith is two weeks in Dundee working remotely then two weeks in LA. Keith’s problem is he has five children and two wives.

Keith’s wife in LA is Liz. Her brother Isaac had been staying with her. While at the airport Isaac sees Keith. Keith is supposedly in Phoenix. He watches him board a plane for Boise. Idaho?? Isaac is now headed to Boise and follows Keith to Dundee. Keith heads straight for a home and into a woman’s arms. Keith figures it is an affair. He does a little snooping and discovers his brother-in-law is a bigamist. He has been married to Reenie for eleven years and Liz for nine. Phew!!!

Yes, Keith’s life falls apart. The best part of this story is that Keith claims to be innocent. It’s not his fault Liz got pregnant with his child! Keith is a real tool!! He only wants Reenie. When she tosses him out then he heads to Liz’s who has moved to Dundee so her kids can be near their father. Of course all the kids are in the same school. Reenie meets Isaac while he is trying to uncover the truth and protect his sister. Major points to Isaac for being there for his sister.

Sparks fly between Reenie and Isaac. I think the only ones that doesn’t see a problem here are the kids. You too will be singing Two Black Cadillacs.

[Anastasia Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's way too much going on. The husband who has two families. The burgeoning love interests. The conflict between the half-sister affair child and the older brother. The other woman's adjustment to a new town and new life. These need to be several separate books. Love Lucky though, particularly when she told off the older brother for punishing her for something out of her control. Liz and Lucky are my favorite characters. They're strong and advocate for themselves.

Also, this passage totally threw me. "She wanted to kick him, but she knew he wouldn't feel it. He was paralyzed from the waist down due to a car accident."

That's about the most insensitive and inhuman ways you could drop that. The exposition dump was about as subtle as a car accident.

And then the main characters try to have sex in the supply closet at a children's school? You're adults. For god's sake. You just know they're the kind of people who think gay people "flaunt their sexuality" just by existing.

And an ivory elephant as a gift? You just spent how long talking about how elephants are killed for their ivory tusks? Ivory's been illegal in the US for a long time.

I didn't like Isaac at all. Isaac was completely ruled by his horniness.

This book was like the world's longest, most unsatisfying edging session.

[Kathleen Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reenie is happily married to Keith and have three beautiful little girls in Dundee.
Liz is happily married to Keith and has two children also in L A Cal.
Keith is happily married to both Reenie and Liz and flies from one home to the other without either one of them suspecting anything.
Liz's brother starts to suspect and follows Keith to Dundee and meets Reenie.
Keith has to go back to LA early and finds out that Issac is in Dundee and leaves Liz to go back to Reenie only to have both women reject him. I would have had him castrated if I had been either one of the wives but I guess that would not be very nice.
Liz,Issac and the kids move to Dundee to be near Keith and Issac falls in love with Reenie.
Keith thinks Reenie should take him back I can't believe him he acts like he is the wronged party.
I hope Liz finds a good man and is able to be happy.

[Charlene Mongenou-Fourrure · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It poses the problem: can one person love two other persons to the extent that one person marries two persons? Yes, it is possible and it creates quite a few problems in our monogamous society. Just think of the numerous, lawfully married men, who feel the need to have a mistress besides their lawfully wedded wives....
Most of the royals go that way, have been going that way for centuries, and nobody seems to think it a big deal. Men are not monogamous. They seem to need 'the hunt', 'the conquest', the suspense of an illicit affair. Such is life. Mother Nature implanted different levels of libido in males and females.
Made me think of Charles Lindbergh, who had FOUR families. He was sooooo convinced of his own excellence that he felt he had to procreate a maximum to bring his 'excellence' to the world in his 'excellent' children...

[Flo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book, more about family than a love story. Isaac is surprised to see his brother in law, Keith, at the airport in LA despite his sister saying that he had just phoned from Phoenix. He follows Keith to Dundee, Idaho and a private home obviously owned by the man he is following, where his wife and 3 daughters live. How can Keith be making love to this very attractive woman when he's in love with Liz, Isaac's sister who have have 2 children together? Isaac meets up with the wife, Reenie, and is faced with a problem. How can he break the news to his sister and Reenie that Keith has 2 families which is why he travels so much. And when Isaac falls for Reenie after her divorce how can he stop traveling and stay with Reenie in small town Dundee. Wonderful details in this sad story of love messed up by a man in love with himself. Highly recommended.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a little different. It dealt with bigamy. Two women are happily married to a man and have no idea he has another happy wife and family states away. Oh, my! It's very hard to put yourself in their situation. If my husband hurt me like that, would I want him to stay in order to preserve my family and provide my children a relationship with their father? Hard to imagine. It would be a very strange and unique position to be in. The two wives definitely dealt with the situation differently at first. I'm happy to say that both characters turned out to be strong, substantial women.
I listened to the audio version of this book.

[Meran Rhodes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good, quick read. The characters were interesting, the plot well developed and it was more than just a fall in love, pitter patter goes the heart kind of story. Also I really like how the sex was handled in this book. It wasn't fully fade to back, which I prefer, but it was tactfully written with barely any graphic description at all. This is seems to be pretty unusual for modern romance and I had kind of given up on the genre until now. I am planning to go back and read Lucky and Gabe's books because the family dynamics intrigue me enough to want to know how they got to where they are.

[Ashley Hedden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dundee, Idaho #6) was another great read by Brenda Novak. Red is found out that her husband of eleven years has betrayed her in one of the worst ways possible. She found out all of these terrible things about her husband because of Isaac. She got a new job teaching history and unfortunately Isaac becomes the school’s science team her temporarily. They are both attracted to each other and try to resist. This was another great read by the author and I cant wait to read more in the Dundee, Idaho series.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy how BN writes about horrible life events like,betrayal,cheating and selfish life choices and explores how it affects all the heart broken people involved. Keith has a wife and three daughters in Idaho and he has another wife and two children in California. There are no winners in this situation and the reader gets to ride the what would happen next scenario to its conclusion. Brenda Novak is a wonderful story teller.

[Carol Deegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I Read the older version of this book, Big Girls Don’t Cry, was disappointed in this book from the Dundee, Idaho, series. I don’t think this book is quite up to the Brenda Novak standards. The first part of the book was excellent, while Isaac tried to figure out what his brother-in-law was up to with another woman. It seemed to me like after the big revelation, the story kind of dragged through to the end.

[Pamela kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been on a Brenda Novak binge the last month or so and I have to say this one was a little off for me. 1. Issac is really going to just move with his sister and let her move into a tiny town when that just happened.
2. He is also going to spend time with and get involved with his brother in law’s ex wife?
This one also didn’t have an epilogue. over all it was an ok book but I did roll my eyes at several spots so 3.5 stars

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book from Brenda Novak.

Once again I was transported to Dundee. I like the town and the characters. I like Reenie and Issac. SPOILERS!! I liked that the relationship took time considering her marriage ended at the beginning of the book. I hate when animals die in books and movies. There should be warnings about it.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been making my way through the Dundee series, mostly with audiobooks. I listen to this one in great part while doing yard work and I'm sure I could have been overheard more than once uttering uncomplementary things towards Keith who was a huge jerk! Everyone loves a good protagonist
But the rest of the story, it was wonderful😊

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished listening to this book. It was about a woman that was married to a man. That man met a flight attendant and got her pregnant, they had a boy and a daughter. The two women did not know about each other. Liz, the flight attendant’s brother, Isaac , followed Richard, the man and found out he was going to his first wife. Isaac and the mans first wife ended up falling in love.

[Marta Carvajal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro entretenido con líos dignos de una telenovela, te engancha, es simpático, digno de comedia romántica, con personajes, a mi parecer, realistas y muy distintos entre sí, lo que le da un toque más interesante y verosímil. Mi problema es, como muchas otras veces, que me interesan casi más los personajes secundarios a los que a veces no se les cierran las tramas, pero se supera.

[Lynn Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how I love the Dundee, Idaho series and all the people who live there! Even the strange ones and there are a few. You will meet them when you read this book and read it you must. Brenda I do love your books, thank you for letting me feel my emotions when I read!

[Kenneth Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big girls can cry

The emotion that was shared on this book is a good example that we don't always know what others are going through. Some times we just need to pause in life and acknowledge others even if it's with a smile.

[Danielle Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this storyline. I thought it was very well written and that the characters were believable and real. Brenda has a way with her words, and I’ve never been disappointed by any of her books. This is a small town romance with a different kind of dramatic flair. Definitely add this to your TBR!

[Melodi Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

Loved this story of Isaac and Reene. Great series so far as well. Another awesome book by Ms Novak. I have enjoyed all of her books so far. Just an amazing writer and knows how to keep your attention to the story!