Customer Reviews

The Girl Most Likely To...

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Yes, there was romance, but it was secondary to the theme of lying to others with tragic results. Good people lie and continue the lies for years with horrible, terrible results. A lot of different people do mean things to each other, which makes it hard to like them. The author had justifications for a lot of it. For example, Kat was raised in an abusive home which affected her decision making abilities, along with some other reasons. Eventually there is truth and forgiveness and a surprise revelation at the end. The story shows the power and necessity of forgiveness. There was a happy ending, but it felt a little empty. I was still hurting from the 20 or more years of suffering by some people. The story kept my interest. I wanted to know what would happen. If you're looking for romance, I do not recommend it, but it was ok for other reasons.

STORY BRIEF:
Kat's father was abusive to her and her mother. Kat's boyfriend Riley broke up with her before she could tell him she was pregnant. Kat's mother told Kat to run away. Kat left town and was gone for 20 years. She is now gorgeous, rich, and has come back to town hoping to get some apologies.

DATA:
Story length: 340 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 5. Setting: 2007 Persuasion, W. Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, and Grand Cayman Island. Copyright: 2009. Genre: women's fiction and contemporary romance.

CAUTION ONE SPOILER:

I had a hard time accepting the author's motive for Riley's lie. As a teenager, he was in love with Kat. His dad told him he had to break up with her or he'd lose his car and playing school sports. I think most teenagers in love would say something like "my dad is making me do this. Can you wait for me? We'll get back together later." Instead Riley just said "Go away, Kat. It's over." It was the main reason Kat left town for 20 years - the basis of the book. I wish the author would have come up with something different.

Having previously read Knock Me Off My Feet, I had hoped this would be a similar book that I would also enjoy.

It wasn't. I found very little to like about Kat Cavenaugh and found it hard to be sympathetic or to root for her to get a happy ending.

I thought Kat was too much of a victim. A victim of her father, a victim of Riley and a victim of fate. She did very little to better her own life. The riches she flashed around in Persuasion were not from her own success and hard work but an inheritance from her former landlord.

That also annoyed me about Kat. She didn't work. She had no kind of job and her only aspiration was revenge.

To me, Kat was immature. She denied her son his father for 20 years and instead of wanting to reunite them, she sought to rub Riley's face in it. Never once did she think about how this would affect her son.

I liked Riley and found him a very sympathetic character. He was the opposite of Kat, taking control and responsibility for his life. Carrie cut the funding for his clinic, but instead of accepting and vowing revenge, he set out to build it himself. When he discovered he had been denied knowing his son, he didn't swear revenge, he set out to find his son.

The most annoying thing about this book was the secondary characters. Too many of them were crazy and the rest seemed to have very little point. Rachel, Jeff, the truck driver and his extended family were unnecessary. You would need a flow chart to keep up with everyone.

Carrie was too over the top. She went from crazy obsessed to nearly cured, and I don't think that happens; then Madeline, the only secondary character I felt sympathy for, also became crazy; and then Virgil, who was probably always slightly crazy, became the main villain. I didn't understand it.

It was like the author couldn't decide who the bad guy should be. Let's try Carrie. OK, not working; moving on to Madeline. Still not working. Oh, I know! Virgil! He's a wife beating child molester. Perfect!

There was just too much going on and the story felt very disjointed and not romantic. I was never wanting Riley and Kat to get together. I was more invested in the relationship between Madeline and Matt, which never went anywhere.

The big reveal at the end was also slightly insulting to the reader and came from way out in left field.

Overall, I didn't like this book. It was written well, but the story wasn't good. I wouldn't recommend it unless you were on a quest to read the complete works of Susan Donovan.

Overall a decent read. I too could not get past Riley's problem with Kat. I mean come on, he told her to get lost! How in the world was she supposed to know that he just meant for a little while??? Yeah, she could have written to him and told him about the baby after she had cooled down some and she probably should have. Yet he also let 19 years go by before he even attempted to search for her! I'm sure the author could have come up with something else. It also didn't make since to me that if his father was telling him that he had to break up with her, then why in the world would his father let her move in with them at their house if she had told him what was going on? For someone who professed to love her so much, knowing her family dynamics, he seemed a bit wrapped up in himself.

I completely understood Kat's point of view, that was relayed very well. She was scared and felt unloved. We all go through things like that. I found it a bit ironic that she grew up much like she had force Aidan to grow up. Oh yeah and how touching was it that Riley actually cried?:-)

I couldn't seem to grasp Riley's point of view though. He did draw first blood and had he not then he would have known about he baby and all because that is why she went there to meet him, but since he told her to get lost . . . . well she did!!!!

You won't find the usual lighthearted romantic comedy you've come to expect from Susan Donovan. It is, at times, dark and sad, and definitely dramatic. That being said, this is a terrific book, well written and captivating. It explores the complicated lives of two wonderful characters in Kat and Riley.

When I read the plot line where Kat has kept Riley's son a secret for 20 years, I cringed. How can that type of betrayal ever be corrected? They ping-pong between anger, bitterness, forgiveness and love. But these two were meant to be together and Donovan realistically reunites them without silly, drawn out misunderstandings or assumptions. Twenty years have matured them to the point where they can forge a new, adult relationship based on total honesty.

This book borders on tragedy in many areas, especially the abhorrent actions by Kat's father and Riley's scary ex-fiancee. It has enough twists and turns that you will find yourself re-reading some parts just to keep it all straight.

What I especially liked about this book was the lack of frustration as the story moved along. In the middle of other books, I'll roll my eyes, thinking someone would NEVER act that way or say such dumb things, and this book had none of that. Kat and Riley expressed themselves in a real way that made their love story all the more satisfying. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A better-than-average contemporary romance, but still not enough to make the 4 star rating. Susan Donovan has written much better, but her fans will likely enjoy this one too.

It's a fast, light read about two re-united young lovers who had a child together. Only he never knew about his son, and they spent tweny years unsure what happened to each other as well as believing several falsehoods. The story begins twenty years after Kat left her small Virigina town 3-months pregnant, and also dealing with a load of other issues including an abusive father, a broken heart...etc. The subject matter is a bit dark at times, the secondary characters not particularly likeable, and the romance was only luke warm with no real steam. The story lacked the comedy and steam I am used to in Donovan's books. It was an easy book to put down when it was time to go to bed, but one I still wanted to finish. The romance felt believable (for a light contemporary read), and there was no TSTL moments. Riley and Kat made a believable love match, and their mistakes of the past was addressed with the right amount of caution. But it wasn't enough to make a gripping story. I look forward to more books by this author, I just hope she revs it back up in her next one.

I've come to really love Susan Donovan. Her novels are romantic, but brash enough to make me shiver. But this one just didn't do it for me. It felt too...busy. Something would get resolved and then something else would come up. And it was all resolved too neatly for so many things. It's not a book that I'm going to think about later on when I'm considering what book to read next. Perhaps it was just because it wasn't nearly as emotional as the previous book I'd just finished. But it left me dry and bored.

Susan Donovan's The Girl Most Likely To... is another heartwarming love story.

Kat Cavanaugh vowed to return to her hometown of Persuasion, West Virginia as a winner. She left after being kicked out of her home, dumped by her boyfriend and pregnant as well. Kat is now rich and still beautiful and vowing to make bad boy Riley Bohland say he was sorry.

It seems Dr. Riley Bohland has his own issues with Kat's return. Upmost being the 20 year old son she neglected to ever tell him about. Seeing each other again almost makes them both forget their anger.

Slowly Kat and Riley are learning to trust each other. Their passion for each other has never dimmed after all these years.

Susan Donovan's books are always a must read as soon as I get them in my hands. Her characters are so true to live and fun to get to know. Kat and Riley have become another couple to adore in a long line of special characters in Susan's books.

This was a great read, and no fluffy romance.
Kat comes back to her hometown after twenty years for revenge but finds a whole lot more. I like how Susan Donovan managed to merge the past and present.
I felt for all the characters and the story made sure you could see everyone s point of view(well the prominent characters anyway)
I loved how humor and suspense drove the storyline. I also liked how nothing was as it seemed at face value.

This book had the lovable characters that we've come to expect from Susan Donovan, but too many plot contrivances made it fizzle. It was still a good read, but...

Pregnant and 16, Kat Cavanaugh is devastated when her boyfriend Riley dumps her and she discovers her abusive father in the arms of another woman. After trashing his studio, her mother sends her packing from her small hometown of Persuasion. Alone and afraid, she accepts a ride from a truck driver who drops her at his sister's house and for the first time in her life, she feels a sense of family. It's now 20 years later and Kat has just lost the only real mother she's known, and has inherited a fortune. Determined to return to Persuasion a success and get revenge on those that let her down, she is surprised to discover that things are not as she hoped. Riley is still single and furious with her for keeping their son Aiden from him, but still attracted to her. When she tells her son about his father, will she lose the rest of her family?

Donovan's latest quirky romance is high on the drama and low on the laughs and romantic sizzle. With a gamut of plot contrivances including spousal abuse, a stalker ex-girlfriend, blackmail, and a quirky best friend, it just pales in comparison to the novels she has written in the past. Though it's a bit predictable, it's also well written, with realistic dialogue and an interesting lead duo. It just seemed at times that the story was just skating a long looking for the next big plot point. I liked the story, but as American Idol's Randy Jackson would say, "it was just alright." I usually hold onto her novels for repeated readings; this one will go to the charity pile, while I eagerly await her next release.

© Tracy Vest, January 2009