This story had potential but nothing felt resolved. Before long the heroine mostly ruminated about being unable to commit and the hero about his terrible childhood. I skimmed the last half. Man next door to where Ally is house-sitting goes into the hospital and she contacts his son Tyler who wants nothing to do with his father. ( )

Not what I expected from a book under the Harlequin imprint.

Many a talented author has run aground describing a relationship with an emotionally traumatised partner. It's not easy to present a credible account of the trauma; even more difficult to weave it into a happy-ending romance.

Ms. Mayberry accomplishes both with a smooth, easy-to-read story that covers some very, very heavy emotional ground. A victim of child abuse attempts a courageous reconciliation with his dying father. No heartwarming hugs and forgiveness here, but a starkly realistic portrayal of a vicious manipulative parent unrepentant to the last.

The romantic element is provided by a meet cute encounter with the house-sitter next door. An agony aunt writing for a major Australian newspaper, she has problems of her own resulting in a serious commitment phobia.

Not the usual elements of a contemporary romance (and a downright misleading generic cover -- eww), but Ms Mayberry doesn't put a foot wrong in shepherding her characters and their hangups to a convincing ending.

( )

Just when I thought I was burnt out on romance novels, I reacquainted myself with the joy that is a Sarah Mayberry Superromance. This one was no exception. It pairs a hero reluctantly caring for his terminally ill father and the advice columnist heroine house-sitting next door and is positively drenched in emotion. The hero is at odds with himself over how to handle his father, who had physically and verbally abused him and his brother until they ran away at 17, and the book pulls no punches with how their reunion unfolds. There are no easy answers and no neat resolution, and I was thankful for that honesty.

While I really, really enjoyed this one, I found the heroine's behavior at the end a bit contrived, and that knocks a star off. Maybe it's unfair of me, but I didn't buy the "I like to wander, therefore I can't do relationships" line of reasoning. My sister-in-law, like the heroine, also lives in house-sits - splitting her time last year between Massachusetts, Thailand and Paris - yet she's managed a many years long relationship just fine. He happily wanders along with her. Mayberry applies some psychology to her at the end to attempt to explain away what I criticize, but it didn't work for me. Even if she had been preemptively rejecting people's love as a defense mechanism, I couldn't see one conversation with Tyler breaking that behavior. It's not a huge flaw, but it deflated the ending a bit for me.

Maybe I'll write a more coherent review later. ( )

Another lovely read by Sarah Mayberry. I will definitely be exploring more of her back list.

This book was about two people that had to overcome painful childhoods. It was really touching seeing Tyler open up about the abuse he suffered when he was a kid. I was truly impressed by how he went back and took care of his father despite what his father had put him through. Just a wonderful romance between real people with real problems. ( )

A poignant story of son, Tyler Adamson, coming home to care for his estranged father during his last dying days of cancer. There is a lot of baggage to deal with which makes the story bittersweet. Lots of emotion and realistic issues to deal with, I really felt this was Tyler's story more than Ally's. Although it might not sound romantic, it was. The relationship the develops when Tyler meets Ally, the next door neighbor who manages to capture his heart, is a nice foil to what is going on with his father . This was an overall good story with some serious issues, but a good love story too, though Ally's side of the story seemed weak in comparison to Tyler's. I preferred the sequel to this one about his brother, One Good Reason, but this had me up in the middle of the night reading until I finished it. ( )