Synopsis

New York City self-help editor Olivia Marks faces her toughest assignment yet: parenthood. When her sister dies in a car accident, the career-oriented Olivia suddenly becomes the guardian to her four-week-old niece, Annabelle. She also becomes a challenge for Annabelle’s uncle, Brad Rushford, an old flame whose gorgeous green eyes bring Olivia’s fevered memories rushing back.

As the two circle each other in their small hometown of Mirror Lake, Olivia finds that Brad is as sexy and charming as ever—and now he’s the darling of the town as he expands his successful lakefront restaurant. Is his flirting designed to get serious, or to lower Olivia’s defenses to give up guardianship? When she finds out about the turreted, brick Victorian house Brad tours with a realtor and an attractive, no-strings-attached reporter—the same place where he and Olivia shared an unforgettable night years ago—Olivia wonders if he’s looking for a future with her, or planning to start a new life with someone else.

In the first heartwarming Mirror Lake story, steamy trysts and surprising twists lead two people to a future neither one expected.

Review

We’ve all had that one relationship that didn’t work out for whatever reason. No matter how much time passes, that moment if you reconnect, despite how bad things were, your mind feels pain but your heart is anchored by the depth of that question of what if. In This Thing Called Love, the first book in Miranda Liasson’s Mirror Lake series, we are introduced to that possibility and what happens when you open your heart for a second a chance and be fearless to the journey it leads you on.

We are introduced to Brad and Oliva, they have a history together but as with many who were young in love, their paths were separated by circumstances. Olivia, is your typical small town turned big city gal. She has a demanding job that leaves her with no life other than her job. Life has a way of throwing you a curve when you least expect it. Her life gets turned upside down when she gets the devastating news of the death of her sister and her husband. Not understanding why this decision was made, she finds out that she is to become guardian of her 4 week old niece. With no time for a personal life, especially no experience with children, she must try to find answers in the one place she never thought she would.

All she thought she was going to do was take a couple of weeks off to figure things out. More challenging than she thought and not about to admit that, in her most vulnerable situation, she stumbles upon someone she least expected see. Well, that would be Brad. He just isn’t any guy but “they” who will no matter how much time passes, will always be the guy who was her first love. Having some hardships early on in his life, after his own tragedy with having to take care of his siblings, Brad made a life for himself despite his small town roots. Don’t let all that sappiness fool you. It just so happens that he is the brother to her sister’s husband and strongly doesn’t think Oliva was the right person to take the baby. In fact, he is on a mission to do whatever necessary to convince her to change her mind. Not bitter or anything in regards to the decision of it not being him, he just feels that someone else is a better fit. The only problem is that not only does this interaction stir up the past but get a bit challenging when the present gets blurred with the past leading each other to find second chances, resolution and the awesome journey finding out how no matter how much you try and change it, fate is always destined.

Now, I’m a sucker for an awesome hea and this definitely made me swoon. After reading this debut novel, I’m very excited to read on and see what comes next. Yes, you can predict the obvious of what happens but it’s how you get there that is awesome. I’m very particular with books like this because it can get very predictable early on but this was one of those stories that just makes you feel good early on because it had characters that had a story that you wanted to invest in. It was like, you know where this is going and don’t want to stop because it just felt like such a great read. I thought she did a great job with the characters, giving us substance and a great story to follow. The development of the plot and the flow of the story was well paced, not to fast or slow but kept your interest not to be distracted by the probability of what you think is going to happen. Fun book filled with moments that will make your heart smile, break out the Kleenex at times and most especially have you cheering, especially in the end because who doesn’t love an awesome hea! Definitely would recommend for the gals to add to the list for a nice story.