Recent Read

The Girl Most Likely To by Susan Donovan

Why this one: I’ve read her books in the past and except for one, I’ve quite enjoyed her books, though the last one, a reread, was a DNF. But I put that down more to the mood I was in since the first time I read it, I gave it a 4

Steam Level: Warm

Blurb: Kat Cavanaugh was sixteen when she hitchhiked out of Persuasion, West Virginia and vowed never to return. Who could blame her? She'd just stumbled upon her father's adulterous affair, found out she was pregnant, got dumped by her boyfriend, and kicked out of her house and school . . . all in a single afternoon. Twenty years have gone by and Kat's back-gorgeous, rich, and looking for an apology from everyone who'd turned their backs on her. First on that list is Riley Bohland, the boy who broke her heart before she could tell him about the baby. But Kat didn't count on Riley having his own axe to grind, or that he'd be just as delicious as he was at sixteen. She also didn't count on her heart opening at the sight of him. When their anger ignites a passion intense enough to burn through two decades of secrets and lies, Kat must question everything she thought she knew about her past. And what about her future? The only place to find the answers may be in Riley's arms.

My Thoughts: This is a bad news/good news kind of review.

First the bad news

Sadly, this book had a big strike against it going it. I don’t like stories with a secret baby plot; where the mother deliberately keeps the news from the hero that he is a father. If the father is a jerk, that’s one thing, but if the father is the hero and is a decent guy, this drives me nuts and it’s a long climb up for the heroine who has selfishly deprived her child of part of his or her parentage. If I hadn’t like the authors previous books, I wouldn’t even have read this book.

Now the good news

I liked this one enough not to want to throw it against the wall. Now that may not sound like much but it really is since it is such a hot button for me. While I hated what Kat did to both Riley and Adrian, her son, I didn’t hate her. I could understand, considering her childhood; her wacko father, her spineless mother and being dumped by her best friend and the father of her baby to run away and stay away for a while.

But I didn’t understand her keeping her son away from his father when she knew he was a good guy.

I loved the deep friendship that developed into love between Riley and Kat when they were young. I loved that he was so protective of her from early on. He made a stupid move when he deserted her without a fuller explanation but I thought she was wrong to punish him so severely for it and rob her son.

I liked that Adrian didn’t forgive her easily and that Riley never tried to talk him into forgiving his mother. What she did was unforgivable.

I loved Riley. I thought he was a great hero and he was the reason I kept reading.

I got a kick out of his psycho ex-girl friend.

And if this isn’t a big hot button with other readers as it is with me, I think they will probably quite enjoy this book.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5