Satisfying Impulse Buy

Sometimes my Nook is a dangerous thing. Heading into this year’s Cannonball Read I had a game plan. I went through my Goodreads to read list, picked the books from the past few cannonballs that I hadn’t gotten around to and really wanted to read. I also looked for books in my to be read that would work for various challenges on Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, and made a big list for myself. I then went to my lovely library’s online catalogue and put in requests for the first few months of the year so that the books I wanted to read would magically arrive at my local library and weekly emails would alert me to their presence. It was a flawless system!

Except that I forgot to include space in my schedule for book recommendations from friends and what I like to think of as decompression reads. All He Ever Desired and All He Ever Needed before it are definitely decompression reads – something that I can just read without my brain having to solve a puzzle or unpack greater meaning. These types of books are often underrated, but I feel they are absolutely necessary to my overall reading experience.

When I finished All He Ever Needed I wanted more of the characters and locations, and more time away from my real world. So, I immediately downloaded All He Ever Desired to my Nook. It was the definition of an impulse buy, but I can happily say that it was five dollars well spent. The book picks up immediately after its predecessor. The Kowalski family member featured this go around is Ryan. After college Ryan built a life for himself several hundred miles away from his family. He has done well professionally, but failed at marriage. He’s back in his hometown of Whitford to oversee a crew from his building company making repairs to the inn his family has owned for generations. This has also put him back in contact with Lauren Carpenter, the girl who he always wanted, but had married his best friend. Lauren is herself at loose ends. Divorced for 8 years and raising her 16 year old son on her own during the week before he’s off to his father’s house on weekends, Lauren finds herself wondering what if she had taken Ryan up on his offer to run away fifteen years ago.

Ms. Stacey uses plot devices to put these two into greater proximity and romance ensues. While I may have complained bitterly in my previous review of her work that the timelines for these romances feel very, very rushed I felt it less with the Ryan and Lauren combination since distance and stepchildren were going to be hurdles that needed to be dealt with pronto (although if they are married by Christmas in book six, 10 weeks away from the main action in book five, I may change my mind about that). I continue my praise of Ms. Stacey as far as making her characters deal with real world issues, and having the solutions be real world solutions. I am also always pleased when the younger characters in the Kowalski world show up since the author gets the tone right with them, and was not disappointed in the characterization of Lauren’s son.