Kristie J’s review of My Best Friend’s Girl (North Moon Bay, Book 3) by Patricia Ryan
Contemporary Romance published by Hawkley Publishing 19 Sep 16
I read most of Ms. Ryan’s medievil books years ago and loved them. Then she started writing historical mysteries as P.B. Ryan and they didn’t really appeal to me and I lost track of this author. She came back on my radar a few years ago when I bought her medievals as ebooks, along with a newly discovered contemporary. But I didn’t actually read any of them and kind of lost track of her again. But now I’ve found her once more with My Best Friend’s Girl and this time I sat down and read the book. I quite liked it and now I want to read her other contemporaries.
Dean Kettering is our hero. He’s living a pretty solitary life after leaving the military. He lives almost off the grid on a boat and sometimes takes people out on tours. So when he finds out he’s inherited a HUGE chunk of change, he doesn’t want it and does everything he can to refuse it. But it seems he can’t. So instead he does the next best thing – he gives it all away. And Laura Sweeney is the person he tries to give it to, but she doesn’t want it any more than he does. Laura is the widow of a very close friend of Dean’s who was killed in combat. Dean has very conflicted feelings about Laura because he had also been in love with her while she was married to his friend. Dean went to see her sometime in the past and they ended up spending the night together. He felt so guilty he disappeared the next morning and didn’t contact her again, though he did keep track of her online.
But Dean didn’t know that Laura had also had feelings for him. While she was happily married, there was some stirrings for Dean that were never acted on and barely even acknowledged. So she was badly hurt when he left so abruptly, because she was ready to see if they had a chance.
So now she’s still upset with him and doesn’t want anything to do with him or his money. They have a back-and-forth and eventually Dean heads to see Laura in person. I found this whole back-and-forth and refusing the money situation most amusing. When Dean does go to see her, he discovers she has a child he wasn’t aware of and assumes his friend is the father. But is he?
I loved Dean. He was so damaged and suffered such guilt that one couldn’t help feel for him. I wasn’t quite as keen on Laura, but not in a big way. It’s more like I like Dean more. But as I said above, I’m glad I have more of Ms. Ryan’s books to read.
Grade: B
Summary:
He had a damn good reason to stay away from her… and now a million reasons to come back…
Dean Kettering: The quintessential lone wolf, he’s led a solitary existence on his sailboat since leaving the Army. Then one simple act puts this antisocial bad boy in the middle of a media frenzy, earning him the title of “hero” along with an unexpected windfall of a million dollars. He doesn’t want the money—doesn’t feel he deserves it—but he knows someone who does….
Laura Sweeney: Dean’s polar opposite, devoted to home and hearth, she’s the woman he secretly longed for even after she married his best friend… the friend who made Dean promise to take care of her as he lay dying. But when he finally sought her out, their long-simmering passion flared into irresistible, white-hot need.
Dean walked out of Laura’s life that night, only to return years later with a million dollars he insists she must take. But if she does, she’ll have to let him back in… and tell him the truth about her little girl’s father.
No excerpt available.
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