Just The Way You Are [Kindle Edition]

Barbara Freethy (Author)

Book Description

Customers who like books by Kristin Hannah, Luanne Rice, Robyn Carr and Susan Wiggs will enjoy this emotional and romantic piece of contemporary fiction from #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy.

This is a full length novel of approximately 100,000 words.

Take a romantic journey with award-winning author Barbara Freethy to Tucker's Landing, Oregon, where Sam and Alli Tucker have made a life together ... a life about to be tested by the return of the only woman who can break them up ... Alli's sister, Tessa.

A baby brought them together -- and even though Alli has always loved her strong, sexy husband Sam and the life they've built together, she has decided to set him free to follow his youthful dreams. It is no longer enough for her to be wife and lover when she knows she holds so little of his heart.

Sam has always dreamed of a life away from the close-knit world of Tucker's Landing, but marriage and fatherhood ended all that. Now Sam is torn between what was and what was meant to be. He must decide if it's time to rekindle the dreams of the past ... or accept Alli, and her love, just the way she is.

Don't miss this heartwrenching tale of a man torn between two sisters , the one he loved, the one he married ...


"If there is one author who knows how to deliver vivid stories that tug on your emotions, it’s Barbara Freethy. JUST THE WAY YOU ARE deftly explores the drama of first loves and second chances." Romantic Times Magazine

"Freethy is a strong storyteller with an unerring ear for dialogue." The Romance Reader

"JUST THE WAY YOU ARE is a romantic, emotional journey through dreams and choices to love. Contemporary romance readers will adore this poignant, heart-tugging tale!" AOL Fiction Forum

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Alli MacGuire, always the tagalong sister, seduced Sam Tucker, the boyfriend of her older and more beautiful sister Tessa, and became pregnant. After watching her husband pine for years for Tessa, the strong-willed and perpetually jealous Alli makes the painful decision to divorce Sam, determined that she and her daughter will have it allDor nothing. When Alli's beloved grandmother, Phoebe, suffers a stroke, Tessa, now a famous supermodel, returns to Tucker's Landing for the first time in 10 years, resurrecting old loves and forcing reexaminations of new relationships. A pearl necklace Phoebe and her long deceased husband started many years ago that has always represented their love for each other becomes the catalyst for repairing the damaged relationship between Tessa and Alli. Even if she must force them, Phoebe wants her granddaughtersDtogetherDto find the last pearl that will complete the necklace and bring closure, finally, to the hurt of the past. Admittedly Alli's not entirely likable, but even Tessa comes to recognize her sister's good qualities, and the reader winds up rooting for Alli, Sam and their marriage. Fans will be eager to dive into this moving tale of two sisters from the RITA Award-winning Freethy (Almost Home). (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A fresh and exciting new voice." -- --Susan Elizabeth Phillips

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 452 KB
• Print Length: 296 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Barbara Freethy; Kindle Edition edition (April 27, 2013)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003ODIVCE
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,649 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

150 of 155 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful story, uplifting and heartwarming! November 4, 2000

By Barbara Deane

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Just the Way You Are by Barbara Freethy Review by Barb Deane, Barb's All Romance Book Store

Avon author Barbara Freethy's November release is entitled Just the Way You Are. It is her seventh contemporary romance for Avon and definitely my favorite so far. Here's our review:

Allison and Tessa are sisters, only two years apart, whose parents were killed in an auto accident when they were still young. After the accident, the girls move to Tucker's Landing, a small town on the Oregon coast to live with their aunt Phoebe. And next door to Phoebe lives the town founders, including the proverbial boy-next-door, Sam Tucker.

From the moment they met, Sam and Tessa are best friends, inseparable and in love. Unfortunately, Allison also falls in love with Sam from the moment she sees him and is constantly chasing after Tessa and Sam, trying to keep up and fit in. The fact that beautiful Tessa is stunningly beautiful and begins a modeling career at an early age doesn't help Allie's increasing feelings of inferiority.

When Sam and Tessa were twenty, he intended to propose at Christmas. Tessa, however, takes a modeling job over the holidays and doesn't go home to Tucker's Landing. So, when a drunken Sam falls in bed with Allie and makes a baby, Tessa is crushed and furious with them both. When Sam tells her he is marrying Allie, Tessa leaves town and doesn't return until Aunt Phoebe has a stroke, nine years later.

However, when Tessa gets to town, she learns that Sam is back living in his parents' old house next to Phoebe, because Allie has kicked him out and asked for a divorce. No longer willing to live with a man who doesn't even tell her that he loves her, but only married her because she was pregnant, Allie cannot get past her feelings of playing second fiddle to Tessa. And with super model Tessa back in town and in Sam's arms, tempers flare and accusations fly.

Barbara Freethy has crafted a beautiful and emotionally satisfying story in Just the Way You Are. I was immediately drawn into these people's lives and was unwilling to let them go until I had finished the story. The secondary characters are compelling and perfectly compliment the emotional attachment and age-old pain that Sam and Allie have to deal with in order to decide what to do with their future. I cannot recommend this book enough - it is a lovely story that will touch your heart.

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth spending a few bucks on... January 4, 2001

By Viaggiatrice

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The best romance novels are the ones that do not follow formula (at least in every aspect). Barbara Freethy has always been good at making her characters a little more realistic and a little less cookie-cutter. It is a great relief to find someone who does. This story is very well done. None of the characters is a saint, all have insecurities and doubts, and each is very flawed. Sam does treat his wife badly-he doesn't appreciate her and blames her for his life turning out different than he had planned. He sees himself as a martyr. He and Tessa are still holding a torch for one another. And Alli doesn't take it like a grown-up. She acts like a real person would to the same situation: angry, bitter and hurt (not just hurt). She doesn't just walk off to let Sam be happy-she goes about making it miserable about it. I really like this about her. Its probably what I would do...because she isn't perfect. The book works well, most of the tears were shed for the sisters relationship-not Alli and Sam's... but theres was well drawn, too. You won't be disappointed.

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Passible romance, interesting concept July 29, 2004

By Rosamond1

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I wish I could give this 3.5 stars because it really is an above average romance read. Freethy has a way with descriptions and her characters were believeable and sympathetic. The concept of the book--two sisters who believe they love the same man--was also intriguing.

The book flounders, however, in the plot resolution. The dramatic set up is strong: After 8 years of small town marriage, Alli Tucker has separated from her much loved husband Sam, because she's tired of having never heard the words, "I love you" come out of his mouth. She also believes Sam has never gotten over his adolescent love for her beautiful, super-model, globe-trotting older sister, Tessa, the woman Alli "stole" Sam from 8 years before.

When Alli and Tessa's grandmother suffers a stroke, Tessa returns to the small town she fled 8 years before and the dramatic conflict begins. Alli still desperately loves Sam but is no longer willing to be what she believes is "second place" in his heart. Tessa is hearing her biological clock ticking and is having regrets she didn't stay with Sam when she had the chance all those years before. Sam is torn between his familial commitment to Alli and their daughter Megan, the child conceived as a result of Alli's seduction of him 8 years before, and the memories of his unfulfilled love for the gorgeous Tessa.

Freethy deftly shows the confused and conflicted emotions of all three characters. Her portrayal of the deep feelings between Sam and Alli is particularly good, but the conflict went on too long. That's all the novel really was, a continuing play on this love triangle that had the characters saying the same things to each other over and over again. It's also obvious very early in the story what the outcome is going to be and who is going to end up with whom.

Even so, this is a well written and engaging read. It's the first Freethy I've read and I'm tempted to try another, hopefully with a bit more developed plot, based on this one's strengths.