Does not follow loved characters
936741
Does not follow the same characters presented in the first 7 books well. ..a good book but don't read as part of the series.
1816470
I received a copy of this novel for review from the author, so I really wanted to love this novel. And I really tried to love it. I did not love this novel. I did like it. But I wasn't dying to sit down and read it, keep me up late at night, that kind of read. And here is why (I think). The novel jumped all over the place trying to be two different types of novels and it never really married into one novel.  At times Willa was in love with Aiden. Cow eyed, stars in the sky, head over heels in love with Aiden. Yes, it's insta love. But I believe when you're being chased by cops and thieves and the FBI and breaking all kinds of laws that it adds to a heightened sense of feelings. There could be no feelings at all between them when the story is over. There is just this desperation right now that Willa feels and Aiden and her had something kindling before the trouble in this book started. And then, Willa does a 180 and decides she can't trust Aiden because he has these secrets and he won't tell her what they are and she reads his text messages which puts her in a tizzy. Really, if you aren't prepared for what might be in the text message, DON'T READ IT!

I know this isn't my format I usually use but it just doesn't work for this review.

The other novel, in this novel, was the straight up mystery. Now that was a good story. I couldn't imagine why Willa's super protective mother would leave her alone at the age of 15. She was supposed to live with Cherise's family. But Cherise wasn't speaking to Willa. And did she ask Cherise's parents? Who does that?
Apparently Willa's mom. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Ludwig does a great job of leading Willa and Aiden (sometimes others) on a scavenger hunt for clues as to where to find Willa's mom. All, of course, while evading the police, homeowners who they "borrow" from and a very persistent FBI agent.
Oh and the bad guys. This was the story I loved. The clues, the near misses, the friends that helped at their own peril, the pain and suffering. Yes, Ludwig really abused Willa and Aiden. I could see them in their final destination looking for Willa's mom Joanne. Ludwig does a fine job painting the scenery for us.

And then Willa turns into the girl that can't decide if she's in love with Aiden or not. She becomes this whiny, ungrateful baby. Honestly I thought she was eight instead of fifteen. She became very unlikable at that point, which was almost the end of the story. But as I reflect back, I don't think I ever liked Willa that much. She's like a dog on a bone her focus is so intense trying to find her mother and everyone else's world becomes nonexistent to her. The things she whined about and the reasons she gave for disliking Aiden after liking him for so long, very childish. I realize she's fifteen, but on this adventure she needed to grow up and she didn't. Granted she had some rather shocking blows, but her ungratefulness just really took the cake.

So despite suffering from multiple novel syndrome and unlikable main character, there is some great writing to be found in the novel. There is some light romance. Sometimes it's heavier, but it's always PG.
Some humor. A great mystery and the set up for the last book which will include the final mystery- just who is Willa Fox??
281431
The book didn't have characters that seemed to have feelings.
1337273
I Wish You Happy is a rather strange book. Rae prefers animals to people, but really she likes rescuing and fixing things. When she runs over Kat, a woman who tries to commit suicide by riding her bike in front of a moving car, she gets tangled up in her recovery. She takes Kat in, and she becomes involved with her crisis worker.

This book is quite dark, but it also has some magical elements. Rae is described as an Empath. She feels the emotions of others very deeply, as if they are her own. This reason is given for her withdrawal from people, but she also has some issues with her parents as well. There was quite a lot of description in this book, but I felt like some key elements of the character building were left out. Why did Rae go by Rae when that name did not derive at all from her given names? What exactly were her issues with her parents?

Rae is told several times that she is codependent, but yet she continues her unhealthy behavior for most of the book. At the end she does something rather extreme, and shes questioning her decision until someone else tells her she made the right choice, and then suddenly all is well. I don't know.

I just couldn't get into this story. The initial premise intrigued me, and I love the cover design, but the whole thing was too out there for my taste. This book was kind of a character-driven, plot-less book, but without enough character-building, if that makes any sense. Can you tell I didn't enjoy this one?

Blog: Opinionated Book Lover
141016
This book started off really great - good paced, honest enjoyable characters that you enjoy seeing develop. However, about halfway through the paced slowed way down, and there seems to be one emotionally jarring twist after another. I really felt battered along with the main characters, and I don't think I got to experience their reunion as a couple to balance all the experienced grief with them along the way.  The author goes into depth with the main characters individual healing but really is missing their healing as a couple.

I don't think I've ever read a book that better captured the honest depths of sadness related to the tragic and emotionally destructive events in our lives: like I said the character development and psychology behind the characters was spot on. This is not a light read, and I came away very emotionally affected.
1735181
There are too many characters to follow.  They are not all developed.  It could have more editing and maybe it would not have been such a long story.  Too many involved descriptions.  Locations of characters, Where are they now in the scheme of the plot?
3096047
I read this book because of a review I had read saying how good it was, and  was extremely disappointed. The review said even though this was a story in a series the reader would have no trouble following.  I found this not to be the case. There were several different story lines to follow. Too many in my opinion and what I considered the main one never was solved, Obviously another book will follow.  But I will not bother to find the conclusion.
3488198
2 out of 5 stars. Two people try to accomplish some of their life goals while slowly falling in love along the way.

I wanted to like this novel so much. My mother gave me my copy saying she absolutely loved it, so maybe my hopes for the novel were too high. I dunno. All I can say is it wasn't anything like I had hoped for and I was very disappointed with it.

My biggest issue with this novel was with how much Isadora dislikes herself, yet how unwilling she is to change her ways. Then when Ryan steps in, I'll admit not always doing the changes in the most polite ways, to help her out she freaks. It was all very annoying, making it so I gave up reading the novel fully by Chapter 18 and just skimmed the rest of it to see how it ended.

I recommend this novel to only those who are fans of Susan Wiggs.

- On a side note -
I am curious to see how Isadora & Ryan decided to live their lives since--by the end of the novel it seems--they'd be living on the run. =0/

The latest cover is great though! =0)

Review By: From Me to You ... Book Reviews
(read more of this review and a teaser on my blog)
382689
I really thought I would enjoy this book, but I was disappointed.  I found that the characters were no one I would like to have a relationship with, mainly because I felt the author just barely gave them identitys.  The ultimate sadness came when I felt it abrubty ended with a confused chapter.  No real  satisfaction to the reader.  I like my books to tie up all the ends.
4237566
This book has all the elements to be one of my favorites: flawed characters, mystery, historical context, twists ... yet, somehow I didn't love it, although I really wanted to. Perhaps, it was because there wasn't a strong plot or closure to tie things together. The book ended with the main characters still semi-lost and seeking without a true end in sight. I get that life isn't all about happy endings or even knowing how things end, but it felt like we were taken on a journey and although a secondary story was concluded, the primary story line just drifted off into the dark.

The main character Becker has a past that he's trying to deal with and chooses alcohol as his healing balm of choice. He's fighting a battle using his own powers and fighting against God's light. I wish there was more redemption in his side of the story.

Many other characters were also weaved throughout the story: Marie & Elise's tale from World War II; Theresa & JoJo; Jade and the Fallon family.

I guess my main disappointment with the book is that it was dark and ended without much hope or happiness. I know sometimes reality can be bleak and sad, yet when I read I'd prefer to be left with a faint glimmer of light and this book didn't supply it.

-----------------------

I received this book free of charge from Handlebar Marketing in exchange for my honest review.
2911657
Given to me for an honest review. I try to review books that I expect to really love or like. Unfortunately, I had a hard time caring  about the characters in this book enough to rate it higher than 3 stars. You might disagree with me and I hope you  do. Unfortunately, this is a Harlequin book and you do not have the advantage of looking inside (found on Amazon) before buying. Harmony Valley is filled with a lot of really old or medically challenged people. Almost all of the young people have left the town. Tracy had an accident that left her with problems finding or saying words when she talks. Because of this she rarely talks. Chad's magazine is taking a  different path and his dead father wanted him to find something different to do. The company let him go. He goes to Harmony Valley hoping to find things that he can write about exactly the way he did before.
4837860
While E.G. Is a favorite author, this book is not.  You need to really love and Understand Football, which I do not.  It also has kind of an ewww factor to me as the main character is in love with her best friends father.  Incidentally  his first wife's funeral starts the story.  So just not for me this time.
2273066
I wanted to love this book, but the story itself is not 'loveable'.  After the book transitioned to Cressida as the "intern" I was lost in how this section fit with the rest of the story, and felt angry at not understanding it.  I should have gotten it right away, and had trouble reading through parts of it, and skipped through large portions, impatient to get to the rest of it.  Regardless, it was well-written and I guess just not my 'cup of tea' for bedtime reading.
2950248
Could not sustain interest in the characters or the plot
1002101
Did not love this book. It took me forever to get through it and that may be because I'm not a young adult. There's a kind of romance and a doesn't make sense teenage love. I don't know. It wasn't horrible, but not my cup of tea.
3358115
This is not the type of story I would normal read as I liked "safe" books, where the hero and heroine are faithful to each other and I believed based on the book summary that the hero was not faithful to the heroine.  Thankful it turned out I was wrong.

SPOILERS BELOW

Luke, who I thought was the hero in this book was not faithful to Eva, the heroine.  While up front about it, he had smex with OW when he was not with her while she pined after him and was with no OM.  It was painful to read about her mooning over Luke and putting herself in a deep freeze until she saw him when he was on leave.  Luke had zero respect for her and it was obvious by her behavior towards him that Eva had zero respect for herself. He treated her like dirt and yet she continued to believe that they were in love with each other and put him on a pestle.  Between Luke's bad behavior and Eva's pining it left a bad taste in my mouth and made me like her less. Thankfully Luke was not the hero but rather Thomas was.  Unlike Luke, Thomas did not have smex with OW after making love to Eva.  He was faithful to her.  Thomas had been pining for Eva for quite a while but she was too in love with Luke to notice.  Stupid girl.

I loved how romantic Thomas was and how well he treated her.  Also I love possessive and jealous alpha heroes and unlike Luke, Thomas was.  By contrast Luke didn't really care when he thought that Eva had smex with OM during the 7 years that he was in a sexual relationship with her.

There were romantic and hot time between Eva and Thomas but zero romance and zero chemistry between Eva and Luke.  The smex scenes between Eva and Luke were mediocre and very lacking.  I was good with that because I disliked Luke and loved Thomas.

The story contained a decent amount of drama.  While I was not happy that Eva was no longer with Thomas I was extremely happy that she was not with Luke the jackjerk.  I will not read the second book, which is from Luke's point of review.  I don't like him.  I don't respect him and I definitely do not want him to end up with Eva and I am sure, from reading the summary, that he eventually does.  To me it would not be a happy ending for her to have her HEA who treated her so badly for so long.
2920117
3.5 stars.  I wanted to love this book, but it fell short for me.  I love medieval romances, they are my absolute favorite, but I wanted more passion between the hero and heroine.
Rowena is abruptly taken from the convent, that has been her home for years, by her father and forced to marry Rannulf later the same day.  Rannulf is only marrying for the land she will inherit and the possibility of heirs in the future.  Rannulf is not an easy character to like.  He is suspicious, disagreeable and accusatory to Rowena; he believes that she will prove an adulteress like a previous wife and he doesn't trust her.
Rowena isn't happy about being married, but is happy to be the lady of her own castle.  She is abandoned by Rannulf after her wedding night and works her fingers to the bone to make his home habitable.  Unfortunately, he doesn't appreciate her efforts and continues to mistrust and belittle her whenever he gets the chance.
All of this negative could have been redeemed (I like a redeemable hero) except there really didn't seem to be any reason for them to care about each other or fall in love with each other.  There was sex in the book, that lacked description, passion and steam - the sex certainly didn't set my Kindle on fire.  I didn't really connect or care for either main character and their equally cold, mistrustful ways.  I wish this would have been more to my taste, but it wasn't.