Somebody To Love by Kristan Higgins

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Gideon's Cove Maine
Release Date: April 24th 2012
Pages: 425
Book Source: Harlequin & NetGalley

Synopsis: After her father loses the family fortune in an insider-trading scheme, single mom Parker Welles is faced with some hard decisions. First order of business: go to Gideon's Cove, Maine, to sell the only thing she now owns—a decrepit house in need of some serious flipping. When her father's wingman, James Cahill, asks to go with her, she's not thrilled -- …even if he is fairly gorgeous and knows his way around a toolbox.

Having to fend for herself financially for the first time in her life, Parker signs on as a florist's assistant and starts to find out who she really is. Maybe James isn't the glib lawyer she always thought he was. And maybe the house isn't the only thing that needs a little TLC….

Karen's Thoughts:

One of the reasons I love reading romance novels is for the chance to escape, to experience a little fantasy, it takes my mind away from everyday chores and a demanding family life. Something Kristan Higgins does really well (and it certainly works for me) is she connects a little bit of fantasy with a lot of reality. The characters we fall in love with in her stories could very well be people we know in our ‘real world’,  dealing with situations that could very well happen in our every day lives.

My reasons for wanting to read Kristan’s newest release were two fold. Firstly, I would read anything Kristan put to print ... even if she were writing obituaries for the local newspaper. Ms Higgins tops the list of my favourite contemporary romance authors.

Secondly, I have been at a bit of loose end from the day I finished reading Catch of the Day as I truly felt the book ended leaving me wanting much much more of Gideon’s Cove and its quirky residents. Bless the Gods, Kristan has re-visited Gideon’s Cove and with the gorgeous little seaside town come my favourite contemporary romance couple of all time and glimpses of their life now are interwoven in Somebody to Love.

Not only do we see familiar faces from Catch of the Day, but we also re-visit with some favourites from The Next Best Thing. I absolutely love that Kristan has intertwined some of our favourite characters from previous novels and brought them together in Somebody to Love.

If you’ve read The Next Best Thing then you will remember Parker, Ethan and Lucy. Parker Welles lives the good life, she has a gorgeous little boy, a great relationship with her son’s father (Ethan) who happens to be married to her best friend, (Lucy) she's a successful author and has financial security due to her father's success. However, Parker's father runs into financial strife that leaves him penniless and in jail. He's dwindled away her trust fund and also her son’s trust fund. Parker finds herself having to move out of the family mansion to find a source of income. All she has to cling to is an inheritance left to her by an old Aunt, a house in Gideon’s Cove, Maine. Whilst her son is on a vacation with his father Parker decides to head up to Maine, tidy the house up a bit and ‘flip it’ giving her a little cash in the bank.

James Cahill, Parker's fathers attorney decides to follow Parker to Maine to help out. He has some carpentry experience from his earlier years doing odd summer jobs.

There's some history between Parker and James and sparks really fly when the two of them are around each other. Both Parker and James had a lot of things to work through before they could find their HEA and it was a rough road to get there.

Once again I’ve come to the last page of a Kristan Higgins novel grinning like a love sick fool, the tissue box is now half empty and I am already thinking about starting the book again from the very beginning.

The people in Kristan’s novels always stay with me long after I’ve turned the last page of one of her novels.  None have quite stayed with me like Maggie and Malone and some of the other wonderful and quirky people of Gideon’s Cove. This is one of the reasons that I loved Somebody to Love ... it was like catching up with old friends.

I was hopeful that Somebody to Love would cure my obsession with Gideon’s Cove and I’d finally feel some closure and be able to move on, however, I might just have to drop Ms Higgins an email and gently suggest that she might like to follow in fellow author Robyn Carr’s Virgin River series footsteps and base a series set in Gideon’s Cove. It’s a delightful place full of delightful people and I hope we get to visit there again some time down the track.

Kristan Higgins novels will always have a place on my ‘keeper’ shelf.

Note: This book could be read as a stand alone but you will get so much more out of it if you read The Next Best Thing and Catch of the Day.

Review by Karen Barr


Thanks to Karen for the fabulous review, I'm yet to read a Kristan Higgins novel but if Karen's happy to read anything by Ms Higgins (even obituaries) it sounds like I should rectify that oversight sooner rather than later!