Reviewed By Samantha Dewitt (Rivera) for Readers’ Favorite

There were some really good parts to this story and I thought the characters were generally interesting, though it didn’t feel like the reader got to know them very well, and there seemed to not be a lot actually happening through the plot. The entire party scene where Luke and Lucy first meet, as well as them getting married, seemed really fake and even though this is pointed out later that it was fake for Lucy, it was strange that Luke fell for it when he had such strong reservations before. Lucy seemed like an odd character and, since she’s the main character, this definitely impacted the entire story. It was difficult to understand her because she seemed to be completely different people throughout and she jumped from one thing to the next with little understanding.

The plot of her leaving Hower and then being drawn back in makes sense because she’s looking for something, but the kidney failure and even before that her daughter having leukemia seemed like they were just thrown in for no reason. Jennifer really had no important place in the story, other than it left Lucy with a little bit of regret (though seemingly not much), and it was the entire cause of Elizabeth and Luke getting together. So really it seemed like she was only there to form a segue for Luke and Elizabeth and then she was gotten rid of like an extra character.

I think the plot needs a little more focus. There doesn’t seem to be anything really big that happens here. Lucy’s changes in her life are all treated as minor and she seems to get over everything really quickly, which makes it seem like these aren’t important plot points – but she’s the whole focus of everything. And the finale seems to trail off to something that could be a second book to find out what’s going to happen to everyone, but there hasn’t been enough action to really draw readers in.