Sarah's Bookshelf

Just finished reading this book by Susan Mallery.  This is the second book in the Fool’s Gold series and definitely one of the more serious stories by Mallery that I’ve read.

In this chapter of the Fool’s Gold series we meet Liz Sutton, a successful mystery author, who has literally pulled herself up by her own bootstraps.  A single parent of an 11 year-old boy, Liz returns to her hometown of Fool’s Gold following a call from her recently abandoned nieces.  Coming home, she makes the point of confronting her son’s father, Ethan Hendrix, and allowing father and son to have some bonding time.  Ethan’s betrayals all through high school have only intensified her sensitivity to him following their reunion.  So it doesn’t help that he’s telling everyone in town that she hid the information of her son from him and everyone else.  Families get involved and much drama ensues.

There are so few books by Mallery that I don’t enjoy, and I have to say despite the ugly undertones in this book, I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit.  It had more meat to it than some of her previous books.  I like her stories that revolve around second chances and reunions with unknown relatives.  I can definitely see Mallery taking some of the minor characters and giving them stories when they grow up.  Tyler, Liz’s son, for example would be a great story, as would her nieces, Melissa and Abby.  The emotions that the characters felt in this book, I felt, were much more potent than some of the other books I’ve read by Mallery.  Although I went through my normal love/hate with the hero, ultimately, I think he’s a good guy at heart.  But he’s a guy, so he needs to be an idiot for a little while before he figures it out.

If you like Mallery, but want a little more drama or meat to your story, I’d suggest checking this book out.  I found it tough to read at times, but tough because I could definitely see real people making these same choices.  This story also introduced more single characters into the mix, so I’m curious to see what comes next.  The next installment of this series, Finding Perfect, will be out in September.  If you’ve read Mallery’s Bakery Sisters series, you’ll recognize Raoul from that story.  Now that I’ve made the connection, I’m super-excited to read that book!