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4.0 out of 5 stars
3.5 stars - good debut by newcomer Kimberly Van Meter, December 17, 2006
This review is from: The Truth About Family (Going Back) (Harlequin Superromance, No 1391) (Mass Market Paperback)
THE TRUTH ABOUT FAMILY by Kimberly Van Meter
December 16, 2006
Rating **** (3.5 Stars)
Erin McNulty returns home after pledging she'd never be back. She's made a good life in San Francisco as a photographer, and there are memories in her past that she wants to leave behind, memories of a horrible childhood and an alcoholic father that was so far from perfect. Erin had just gotten word that her father and her aunt, the woman that helped raise her, had been involved in a tragic accident in which her Aunt Caroline Walker was instantly killed. Her father was in serious condition. Erin returns home because she had loved her aunt, but has no intentions of seeing her father. She will never forgive him for the way he treated her.
The officer who had called Erin with the bad news is investigating the accident, and it appears it was not an accident after all. Someone was trying to kill Erin's father. Erin doesn't believe this, but after seeing the evidence, she knows that whoever tried to kill him is still out there.
While Erin is home to take care of Caroline's funeral as well as the property, including Caroline's elderly dog, she gets acquainted with Officer Colin Barrett and his daughter Danni, who seems to be going through a rough period. Danni just learned that her mother, who she thought had been dead all these years, had only just died recently. Her father had kept the truth from Danni, and Danni could not forgive him. She's acting out, and is now in trouble with the law. Erin tries to connect with Danni because she sees a lot of herself in this troubled girl. Through Erin's love of photography, she hopes that she can show Danni how to harness her negative energies and get her away from the crowd of friends that had been getting her into trouble.
In the mean time, Erin has learned some interesting stuff about her own family, details that may explain why someone was trying to kill her father. There's been a secret that had been kept from Erin all these years, and it changes her perception of her father and her relationship with him.
THE TRUTH ABOUT FAMILY was a good first novel by Kimberly Van Meter. While the novel didn't always ring true and at times felt awkward (sometimes the characters felt a bit forced), the story was entertaining enough for the reader to follow through with the book to the end. Van Meter writes about characters that the reader will care about, and in THE TRUTH ABOUT FAMILY, the three central characters Erin, Colin and Danni will have the reader want to read to the end. The focus of the book was on both Danni and her relationship with her father Colin, but at the same time there were parallels with Erin and her own father, a man that had also kept a few secrets from his daughter. Both fathers, as the reader will learn, did it out of love to protect their daughters, but both Danni and Erin react in a negative way because they both felt betrayed by it.
The few awkward moments, in this reviewer's opinion, were the times Erin fell apart in Colin's arms. She is introduced into the book as a very strong and independent woman, someone that didn't need to lean on anyone else. So, when she did fall apart and spend a number of times in Colin's arms breaking down and crying, it felt very wrong and unnatural for this character to do so. On the other hand, Danni's character felt right on the mark, as she seemed like a very believable teen who was going through a lot of emotional stress due to her new knowledge about the mother she never knew. She seemed to want to get into trouble, to make her father angry and to get back at him for lying to her. No matter what Colin did to try to win Danni's trust, Danni would do something irresponsible to show that she didn't care in the least about Colin and how he felt.
This reviewer would be interested in reading more by Van Meter. THE TRUTH ABOUT FAMILY was a good first novel that showed she could write a story that will keep the readers interested. - courtesy of LoveRomancesandMore
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4.0 out of 5 stars
fine contemporary romance, December 16, 2006
This review is from: The Truth About Family (Going Back) (Harlequin Superromance, No 1391) (Mass Market Paperback)
When American Photographic magazine photographer Erin McNulty left Granite Hills, she vowed never to return. However, one call forces her home. Her beloved Aunt Caroline, who was more a mom to her, died in a car crash in which her father Charlie was apparently driving under the influence. Mourning the loss of the only person who cared about her, Erin goes home to bury her aunt and ignore her dad, hospitalized in a coma.
Police officer Colin Barrett, who called her with the tragic news, stuns Erin further when he claims this was not an accident, but someone deliberately caused the crash. He has no motive or suspect, but with her help they begin to dig into her father's past to determine who wanted Charlie dead and why.
Erin knows you can never come home because everything changes, but in her case she does not want to come home as that is a place of pain and sorrow with the exception of her beloved Aunt Caroline, who is dead. Colin is attracted from the first meeting with Erin, but knows unless she comes to grips with her past, he has no chance with her. The investigation augments a fine contemporary romance as Erin with the cop she is falling in love with at her side digs deep to learn THE TRUTH ABOUT FAMILY; that is her family.
Harriet Klausner
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