My review

Good read. Involving characters. The leading characters love for each other is felt in every word. This story left me wrung dry. ( )

As much as I thought this was going to be just another romance story it wasn't and I liked it.
I liked the characters especially Noah and Gracie and I liked the story. I always like a good book where that the parents are at odds and the big thing was I just liked the plot. While I did not think that Gracie and Noah had a true romance. I never felt the connection but, I guess that love stories sometimes can be felt but not seen. The thing is I felt the love between the two of them but I never did see the love show between both of them. I really really liked that Barbara Bretton kept the twist going until the end because let me tell you I believed Simon and I really thought.....they were brother and sister ( )

From the start we know that Gracie will jilt Noah on her wedding day. The circumstances which lead to this make up most of the book followed by the consequences when she returns to town for the marriage of her father and meets Noah again. For the first two thirds of the book you are wondering what will lead up to the jilting and then for the last third you are working out how the author can overcome the problem and lead this couple to a happily ever after ending.

Although this book was well enough written I did find it a bit too melodramatic for me, possibly because there is so much of the book devoted to establishing the relationship between the two and hinting at what will happen and building up the tension. This is a matter of preference of style and it is very possible that other readers might enjoy this way of writing more than I did.

The biggest issue about this book is that it depends very much on hidden secrets. If people had just talked to each other instead of reacting (or over reacting)then a lot of suffering might have been avoided - and it has to be said that there were a lot of secrets hidden by the characters, I might have believed that one thing had been concealed but it did rather push the bounds of possibility that there were were so many.

This was not a bad book and it was very readable but I thought that the style in which the story was presented was melodramatic and I thought that the secret keeping was unrealistic. ( )

Overall I felt the author wrote an intriguing story. In the first 3 chapters, the main characters were young children; then in chapter 4 the story skips ahead 10 years. I was disappointed that the author felt it necessary to use foul language from that point on. I guess she thought that the main characters had become adults, so why not use adult langauage. It spoiled the image of the characters for me. However, the story was so well developed that I didn't want to put the story down. I read it in just a few days. ( )

This book was a pleasure to pick up at the end of my day. It was an easy read with a happy ending.

The story takes place in a small town where everyone knows everyone and their business.

Noah and Gracie have known eachother since they were five years old. Noah is from a well-to-do family and Gracie not. Gracie's mother died when she was young. Her gramma is the person who has always stood beside her granddaughter. Gramma Del works as a maid in Noah's house.

Both children long for what the other has.

As they get older they grow more fond of eachother. They share their dreams and have decided that they want eachother in their future.

For some unknown reason, the families are against them being romantically involved so they plan to elope and spend their lives far away, just the two of them.

At the last minute, Gracie finds out something that makes her throw away all her dreams and runs away from the only person she has ever loved, leaving Noah wondering why this happpened.

Eight years later, they meet again in their own town. They have changed over the years, but the love they had hasn't.

Both have questions. Both can't deny their feelings. At last they find out why their families were always against their relationship. ( )