Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

SPOILER ALERT The first part of this three part book grabbed me. I was into it, and was planning on recommending it to friends. But the author dropped the ball when she got to parts two and three. I read to the end, hoping it would get better. Instead, it relies on what I would call "chick lit" cliches, becoming a beach novel, when it could have been a great novel. Here's the quick list of what I ended up hating about this book: The heroine is the only mother at her son's school who isn't a vacuous snob, and we get plenty of opportunities to come to that realization. Her son has no faults, and may be the first 12 year old to immediately be accepted by other 12 year olds and flourish at a new school, the very first day. The in-laws, villians at first, in an instant become the Cleavers, accepting her into their family without hesitation, after 20 years of no contact at all. It's okay that her father cheated repeatedly on her mother, although we hate her husband for cheating on her. Her evil step-mother turns out to be a sweetheart; it was all a misunderstanding over some dishes. And perhaps the most disappointing of all, our heroine finds love within just a few months of fleeing her nightmare in NYC. At first he seems to be a local yokel, but wait, No, he's a college professor. So he is acceptable after all. He finds her adolescent son "wonderful" (as everyone does) and the son warms up to him just as fast. The only suspense in this book: would she end up in the arms of the lake neighbor, or the arms of the police detective. But the detective has a double chin, so we know it has to be the lake neighbor. You've read this same book a hundred times. It's headed straight to Lifetime TV.