Taking a page from innumerable contemporary romances at the moment, this book is told from alternating first person narrators. The person we hear from the most is Emma London. When her mother died, her father dumped her with his mother, the incredibly well-known designer, Genevieve London. She never quite feels like she belongs. And it becomes official when, at 18, Emma gets pregnant. Suddenly, she is out on the streets without a penny to her name so she goes to live with her maternal grandfather.Years later, Emma gets a call from Genevieve; Genevieve is dying and wants to surround herself with family in her last days. Emma doesn't want to leave her burgeoning psychiatry practice but a series of events, including her now-teenage daughter, Riley, being bullied by her former group of friends. Now Emma, Riley, and Emma's grandfather are all going to live with Genevieve.
Like many Higgins books, there's a lot going on in this novel. Maybe too much... there are a lot of Big Themes and trying to deal with all of these leaves little room for character or relationship development. I would have thought that Emma and her romantic interest would have been more of a focus... except that this book is categorized in Women's Fiction. And that made it less interesting than Higgins' other books. She's good at big emotions but they hit more with the reader when they're tied to people we care about. And that just didn't happen in this particular Higgins book.
Three stars
This book came out August 6th
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own
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