Review: Somebody to Love – Kristan Higgans

Somebody to Love by Kristan Higgins
Series:
Release Date:  April 24, 2012
Publisher:  HQN
Source:  NetGalley
Buy the book at: Amazon

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….

If you’ve read Kristan Higgins’ The Next Best Thing and Catch of the Day you’re going to recognize some of the characters in this delightful read.

Parker Welles has the rug pulled out from underneath her when she discovers that her father has lost all the money in her trust fund and her son’s, leaving them broke.  She thought she was homeless too, until she discovers that she’s inherited a great-aunt’s house in Gideon’s Cove, Maine.  Thinking she going to spruce the place up and then flip it for some fast cash, she leaves her son in the capable hands of his father for a three week vacation and heads to Maine.  When she gets there, she discovers that the house she thinks she’s going to spruce up actually needs to be torn down.

Enter James Cahill, or Thing One, as Parker calls him.  James is her father’s attorney, who also happens to know a thing or two about rehabbing a shack like hers.  Even though she’s rather kick Thing One to the curb, she knows she needs his help to fix the place up, even if he’s only doing it because her father paid him too.

I loved, loved, loved this book.  Parker and James are absolutely a riot.  The banter between them will have you laughing out loud.  You appreciate how their relationship changes as their banter changes from bickering because they irritate each other to the conversations you have with the person that is most important to you.

Kristan Higgins did a wonderful job of interweaving characters from The Next Best Thing and Catch of the Day into this book.  It was nice to see where Lucy and Ethan were in their relationship along with all those colorful and gossipy residents of Gideon’s Cove.  For those that love Malone, he’s back and I think he says more in this book than he did in all of Catch of the Day.

As with any Kristan Higgins book, I spent a lot of time smiling and laughing while this and then right at the end reaching for that kleenex to wipe at a leaky eye.  These are always a treasure to read and something I look forward to a couple times a year.