Linsey Lanier
Sally Kilpatrick
Sia Huff
Romily Bernard
Darcy Crowder
Marilyn Baron
Tami Brothers
Sandra Elzie
Carol Burnside
Debbie Kaufman
Maxine Davis
Tammy Schubert
Susan Carlisle
Pam Asberry
Lindy Chaffin StartAll I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins
All I Ever Wanted
HQN
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6408-7
Contemporary Romance
August 2010
Format: e-Book
Callie Grey is in love with the wrong man. Mark Rousseau is handsome and charming, but completely self-centered and shallow. He’s also her boss. And her former lover. And now he’s engaged to Muriel deVeers, the daughter of their newest client. To make matters worse, he’s brought his fiancé in as an account exec at his company, Green Mountain Media. Muriel’s purpose, it seems, is to minimize Callie.
Enter the new vet, Dr. Ian McFarland. Not exactly warm and fuzzy, Ian is roughly appealing in a Russian gangster sort of way. He has a great doggy-bedside manner, but an uncanny ability to alienate humans, especially the female variety, who create a series of imaginary ailments for their dogs as an excuse to get close to the new man in Georgebury, Vermont.
At first glance, Callie and Ian are an unlikely match. An eternal optimist with a spunky spirit, Callie aims to please. Ian, who’s completely turned off by people and scarred emotionally from a break-up with his ex-wife, thinks she’s trying too hard. They keep meeting under the most bizarre circumstances, when Callie is at her worst: In line at the Department of Motor Vehicles on her 30th birthday, right after Mark breaks up with her; during an Internet dating disaster; while she’s purchasing Dr. Duncan’s Cleanse’ n Purge Weight Loss Jump-Start Tea and in the aftermath, when what Ian calls Callie’s “emotional diarrhea” manifests itself physically on a company outing.
Ian isn’t exactly a white knight, although he does seem to have an ample supply of white handkerchiefs on-hand for all occasions.
Kristan Higgins has created a motley, but lovable cast of characters. There’s Callie’s mother, who runs a funeral home; her father who was kicked out of the family years ago for cheating on Callie’s mother when she was pregnant, and is now trying to win back his wife; and a semi-normal sister – a fertility doctor who’s looking for a father for her two adopted girls, although she hates men. Then there’s the grumpy grandfather who shares his house and boat-building studio with Callie; her brother, who hasn’t lived up to his potential; not to mention two adorably outrageous nieces, the requisite great girlfriend, two lovable dogs and a rocking chair with magical powers.
Readers will sympathize with Callie as she pursues the wrong man, and tries her best to get over him, arguing with her two alter-egos Michelle Obama and Betty Boop (don’t ask). By the very satisfying end, we see a side of Ian we never expected, but circumstances keep getting in the way as Callie and Ian try to connect.
I didn’t know anything about Kristan Higgins before, but now that I’ve read her latest book, I will be buying everything she’s written. There’s something for everyone to love, laugh and even cry about in All I Ever Wanted. A great summer read, All I Ever Wanted is all I ever wanted in a book and a story for all seasons.
Tags: All I Ever Wanted, book review, contemporary romance, HQN, Kristan Higgins, Marilyn Baron
About the author
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Marilyn Baron | Marilyn Baron's debut novel, The Edger, a humorous women's fiction she cowrote with her sister, award-winning Florida artist Sharon Goldman, was released January 2012. THE EDGER is available at Amazon Kindle http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006Y3P12Y#_
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/123376
Barnes & Noble Nook Books http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-edger-marilyn-baron/1108321593?ean=2940013703957&itm=1&usri=the+edger+marilyn+baron
Her humorous supernatural e-short stories, "A Choir of Angels," "Follow an Angel," and "The Stand-In Bridegroom," are available from TWB Press at http://www.twbpress.com/thestandinbridegroom.html.
Marilyn Baron is a public relations consultant in Atlanta. She’s a PRO member of Romance Writers of America, and is the winner of the GRW 2009 Chapter Service Award.
She writes humorous women’s fiction, romantic suspense and paranormal. Her manuscript, “The Colonoscopy Club,” finaled in the GRW Unpublished Maggie Awards for Excellence in 2005 in the Single Title category and "The Edger," won first place in the Suspense Romance category of the 2010 Ignite the Flame Contest, sponsored by the Central Ohio Fiction Writers chapter of RWA.
She graduated from The University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism. What’s unique about my writing? I try to inject humor into everything I write, from romantic suspense to women’s fiction. I like to laugh and I think my readers do too. I tend to feature older heroines, because let’s face it, we’re not getting any younger.
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September 4th, 2010 at 7:55 am
Marilyn,
Sounds interesting. I like a good read with unlikely couples getting together.
Sandy
September 4th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Sandy,
Thanks for commenting. I think you will really like the way the author brings these two together and you’ll enjoy her sense of humor.
Marilyn
September 6th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Hey Marilyn. Great review. I’ve been interested in this book since I saw the cover on another blog site. The cover always makes me stop to look at it but this is one of those stories where the blurb just didn’t catch my attention. Your review has changed my mind. It is defintely going on my to read list. Thanks for sharing.
Tami