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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely charming, November 2, 2007
This review is from: Catch Of The Day (Mass Market Paperback)
When it comes to love, nobody has worse luck than Maggie Beaumont. And unfortunately, most of her humiliations are public, providing her neighbors and friends with plenty of unplanned comic relief. Her first serious boyfriend broke up with her publicly when he brought his new girlfriend home for a visit after getting signed by the Boston Red Sox; and then there's the crush she has on her parish priest that has made her the laughing stock of her tiny Maine town (she unknowingly told everyone that she met her soul mate, not realizing he would be their new priest). And it doesn't help that she has an identical twin sister with a seemingly perfect life. The only guy she can count on is her lovable dog Colonel. And thank goodness she loves her work - running the family-owned diner that she painstakingly revitalized. When surly and silent lobsterman Malone rescues her from a blind date no show then plants a wet one on her with no notice, she suddenly finds his gruff personality hard to resist. Not much of a talker, she's not sure he just doesn't want a body to warm his bed.
Higgins sophomore effort is a bittersweet and humorous slice of life, proving that her success with "Fools Rush In" was no fluke. She had me laughing hysterically and in tears. Many readers can connect with Maggie and appreciate her quest for love (and to be voted best breakfast in Washington Country). "Maloner the Loner" is an intriguing character - at times sexy as hell (loved the hand cream scene). His lack of communication combined with Maggie's verbal diarrhea make for some hysterical situations, and I found myself trying to guess what his first name could possibly be (and glad it was revealed). Tossing in another secondary couple, as well as marital strife for Maggie's folks round the story out. Higgins is an auto buy for me!
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PLEASE do a book 2 for Maggie and Malone!!!!, September 24, 2007
This review is from: Catch Of The Day (Mass Market Paperback)
Quick plot summary: Maggie, bighearted, single and devoted to her beloved golden retriever Colonel, lives in the small Maine town of Gideon's Cove, runs a diner and is always willing to whip a huge meal for the church supper, firemen or other cause. Everyone has witnessed her romantic screw-ups and humiliations and her close network of family and friends often compares her to her perfect identical twin with a doctor husband and beautiful baby. This is the kind of town where everyone knows everything about everything you and your family ever did and everyone, especially her mother, can't let Maggie forget that she is still single at 32 and running out of townsmen and men from the not so nearby environs to date. When Maggie meets a seemingly perfect newcomer, she tells one too many people that she's found her soulmate leading to yet another humilation in front of the town when she finds out who he really is. She's so busy fixating on him that she fails to notice an unconventional but great guy that she has overlooked for years. Will Maggie ever find a soulmate? Is that the one man she can't have? Or is it taciturn and surly Malone, a friend of her brother who is so silent and unfriendly the town calls him Maloner the Loner? *********************************************
I loved this book. I thought Ms. Higgin's first book, Fools Rush In, was well-written and plotted but somehow did not do it for me. I think the ick-don't-go-there factor of the heroine hooking up with her ex-brother-in-law was the sticking point on an otherwise great book. I almost did not buy this book because I remembered being put-off by that plot point. What a mistake that would have been. I stayed up until 2 AM reading this book straight through. This book was almost perfect. It was funny, making me laugh out loud, moved me to tears (and actual choking sobs at one point), portrayed a charming (ala Marcia Evanick) but not too unrealistically cutesy (Sherryl Woods, I am looking at you!)tiny Maine lobstering town. The book has a wonderful, moving heroine with a first POV, which I normally hate with a passion but felt right here. She is strong but flawed, smart, sticks up for herself when it matters and has some funny screw-ups that seems like they could really happen to you or I. It's hard to find a good romantic comedy anymore. Authors usually try too hard with the wackiness, create characters too stupid to live or otherwise fall flat. This book's tone is spot-on. I love the dog, who is treated in a great way so that he supports but does not steal the book away; Maggie's family and friends, especially her twin are also well drawn.
My one complaint: the end feels rushed to the point I was anxiously checking the page count as I got near the end to make sure the book wasn't mising pages because so much was unresolved. I'm not sure by the end that a happily-ever-after had been fully earned and that the hero's, (Malone), behavior had been fully explained. Dare I hope this is because the author plans Book 2 and we will pick up with these characters again? Please say so. Malone is so uncommunicative and many of his actions so inexplicable that he essentially remains a maddening but intriguing enigma still by the last page. I would have like another couple chapters or a different climax to make us feel that this couple was going to be able to live together and communicate going forward. The author make the reader want everything to work out for them but I was left with a nagging feeling that no happily ever after was guaranteed for these two still. DO NOT let this stop you from buying the book, you will love it. Just consider this my plea to the author for book 2 for Maggie and Malone.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Has some highs and some lows, January 4, 2010
This review is from: Catch Of The Day (Mass Market Paperback)
I mostly enjoyed this book and parts of it brought tears to my eyes (the dog story line) but it really should be marketed as Chick-Lit not as a romance. The heroine spent very little time with the hero and it was difficult to see how she could have ever fallen in love with him given the sparse amount of time she spent with him. I loved the idea of his character but it was very underdeveloped. We never are shown why he is the way he is much less the heroine ever getting any conversation out of him that would show her the character of the man she's supposedly in love with for all of the maybe 40 pages of the book she spends with him.
Also I had a pretty hard time with how she kept embarrassing herself. I'm not real fond of wincing through an entire book.
Like the other book I read by this author, Too Good to be True, the heroine makes a mistake and the hero immediately condemns her and breaks up only to come back later and say never mind I changed my mind. If he were going to change his mind, he should have let her explain and tried to forgive her in the first place.
I did not like that the book was written in first person present tense. That's just hard to read. I prefer 3rd person but I can take first person past tense. But with 1st person present I can't help wondering if the heroine is wandering around with a piece of paper jotting notes to herself..."I walk in the room, I look to the left. Malcolm is here. He takes me in his arms and kisses me." Are you scribbling your notes on his back while he's doing so?
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