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WHEN YOU WERE MINE - Adrianne Byrd Harlequin Kimani/Arabesque August 2006 |
SYNOPSIS: In the second installment in Byrd's Adams Sisters series, two old friends are reunited and discover that sometimes what the head wants is in sharp contrast to what the heart longs for.
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: |4| Susan Plummer
REVIEW: A great dish begins with a good recipe and Adrianne Byrd’s, WHEN YOU WERE MINE serves up quite a delightful read with loads of laughter, a dash of drama, a pinch of poignancy and sweet romance. WHEN YOU WERE MINE is a wonderful illustration of how a person can become so obsessed with a false perception of love they almost miss out on the real thing when it eventually comes along. The story of Joey Adams and Ryan Donovan unfolds like a movie and readers will be completely engaged from page to interesting page.
Sometimes things are not what they appear but screenwriter Joey Adams
makes a perfectly natural assumption when she discovers her boyfriend
has made a costly jewelry purchase. She is totally blindsided, however,
when he announces he is getting married alright…but to someone else.
Finding it hard to accept her shattered dreams, Joey scales a wall to
reunite with him only to fall into the arms of film director Ryan
Donovan. Ryan is a happy bachelor unfazed by Hollywood’s silicone
beauties but he is immediately captivated by Joey’s natural beauty. Ryan
realizes that Joey only has eyes for the fool who let her get away.
Unable to beat Joey’s foolish ex for a place in her heart, Ryan decides
to join her crazy quest to reunite with him. The more Ryan spends time
getting to know Joey the more he realizes she is perfect for him. He
creates a very extraordinary scheme to convince her to quit chasing a
fantasy and to take a chance on a reality with him.
The novel flows effortlessly through plots encompassing Joey and
Ryan, and Joey’s siblings and their various relationships. Just as
smoothly, the story moves with skilled transition from Los Angeles, with
it glitz and glamour, to Milan with its old-world, romantic charm. There
might be bumps and hitches on the way to Ryan and Joey discovering love
but none can be found in this very entertaining story.
Ms. Byrd gives us the opportunity to revisit with several characters
from an earlier book entitled MEASURE OF A MAN and again they are
wonderfully developed and add unique flavor to a wonderful recipe of
love. The dialogue in some places is so comical, I was stifling chuckles
as I read on the train and in other places so touching, I was
misty-eyed.
WHEN YOU WERE MINE is one of the best reads I’ve had all summer and I
couldn’t put it down despite my one 1:00 a.m. reading curfew. When I say
this is a must read, I mean just that.
reviewer@romanceincolor.com |2nd August 2006