Review: This Thing Called Love, by Miranda Liasson

this thing called love, miranda liasson, book reviews

✩✩✩✩✩


Genre: contemporary romance
Offensive content: nothing much. One sex scene, pretty subdued

I really loved this book, in several different ways. Although the storyline is pretty much your average contemporary romance, it has a few minor twists that really grab your attention. 

Olivia Marks is an accomplished editor of self-help books. Twelve years ago she left her small town life behind to go to college and never looked back. She now lives in New York and has everything in life she could wish for. Or so she thinks. 

Brad Rushford is the boy Olivia also left behind. Now a self made man and successful restaurant owner, unlike Olivia,  his life and his success are totally entwined with the small town of Mirror Lake, Connecticut. Olivia was once the love of his life but she's in his past and he's not going back there. Or so he thinks. 

At the beginning of the book, they are sort of thrown back together on account of Annabelle, their baby niece. Olivia's sister was happily married to one of Brad's younger brothers, but the couple passed away on a tragic car accident four weeks after Annabelle's birth.In their will they had named Olivia as the baby's guardian and she has returned to Mirror Lake to take care of the baby. She's on a two week leave from work and expects, during that time, to make the necessary arrangements to move the baby back to New York.  Brad, on the other hand, is totally intent on thwarting her plans and making sure Annabelle stays in Mirror Lake with the rest of the family, where she belongs. 

This is a book on second chances, on making lemonade when life gives you lemons. As a working mother of two, I can totally relate to Olivia's dilemma on how to take care of a newborn baby and still have a fulfilling career. And the panic Olivia feels when she finds herself alone with the baby, that helpless feeling of not knowing exactly what to do? I think all first time parents, biological or not, feel like that at least once after they bring their babies home. And Brad and Olivia's relationship is also a lesson on choices and compromise, on how both parties sometimes need to let go of something to make it work.

Despite all this, the reading is fairly light, downright funny at places (like the first scene, when Olivia and Annabelle are out grocery shopping - everyone who has taken a newborn baby to the supermarket can totally relate to that!), the story is interesting, the secondary characters are great (the second installment in the series, Meg & Ben's story is due to be released next October) and, most importantly, there is a happy ending. 

Overall, a great summer read that will leave a smile on your face and a warm feeling in your heart. 

Enjoy your reading!

 

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