Can I just say I hated this from the first? It immediately strikes a note of strained melodrama. The book is set in small town Cedar Cove, Washington and starts after a restaurant, The Lighthouse, owned by the Gundersons is burned down. We learn that Justine Gunderson is still traumatized by her brother literally dying in her arms. The restaurant's chef Jon spent time in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Can we say soap opera?
Anson, Allison's boyfriend, is suspected of setting the fire. He has a record of arson, was recently laid off from the restaurant because he was suspected of theft--and the night of the fire he shows up on her doorstep smelling of smoke, but she's sure he's innocent. OK, so was I, because that's what happens in novels like this, but it still made her come across as stupid.
But really, it's the writing that put me off and made it unbearable to spend hundreds of pages reading this. No cliche is left unused: "by his side every step of the way" "You can't go on like this." "head-over-heels crazy about him." Just such tired language. And when I turned to the end I saw the resolution was exactly what I had guessed by page 20--and the last paragraph is an unforgivable cliffhanger designed to make you go on to the next book in the series. I'll definitely pass.
