Until There Was You (Hqn) [Mass Market Paperback]

Kristan Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 25, 2011 | Series: Hqn

Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her lovable, if off-center, family and she has a boyfriend—sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking…something like Liam Murphy.

When Posey was sixteen, the bad boy of Bellsford, New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again. She should be giving him a wide berth, but it seems fate has other ideas….

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A funny, poignant romance....Readers will be cheering for Harper all the way."

- Publishers Weekly on My One and Only, starred review

"Higgins has a special talent for creating characters readers love... Fun, charming and heartfelt."

-RT Book Reviews on All I Ever Wanted, 4 ½ stars

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

Winner-2010 Romance Writers of America RITA® Award

"Cheeky, cute, and satisfying, Higgins's romance is perfect entertainment for a girl's night in."

-Booklist

CATCH OF THE DAY

Winner-2008 Romance Writers of America RITA® Award

"A touching story brimming with smart dialogue, sympathetic characters, an engaging narrative and the amusing, often self-deprecating observations of the heroine. It's a novel with depth and a great deal of heart."

-RT Book Reviews (Top Pick, 4½ stars)

About the Author

Kristan Higgins is the RITA award-winning author of CATCH OF THE DAY and three other romantic comedies. Previously a copywriter, Kristan began writing fiction when her children graced her life with simultaneous naps...so much more satisfying than folding laundry. She holds a BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross, which enables her to identify dangling participles and quote many great novels. Kristan lives with her family in Connecticut.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: HQN Books; Original edition (October 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037377611X
• ISBN-13: 978-0373776115
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kristan divides her time between home in Connecticut and summers on Cape Cod. She is the mother of two lovely kids, the wife of a brave firefighter, and a devoted Ben & Jerry's fan. Previously a copywriter, Kristan began writing fiction when her children graced her life with simultaneous naps...so much more satisfying than folding laundry. She holds a BA in English, which enables her to identify dangling participles and quote many great novels. She loves to connect with readers on her website www.kristanhiggins.com and her Facebook page www.facebook.com/KristanHigginsBooks

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another solid, if similar read. October 25, 2011

By me1558

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely LOVE Kristan Higgins. I patiently wait for her new releases and begin stalking her website almost immediately after she publishes a book to see when the next one will arrive. This book is a standard Kristan Higgins - spunky heroine, fabulous supporting cast, and a leading man that you wish could be yours. That said, I didn't completely love it. It almost felt as if I had read parts of it before, the characters and situations were a bit too familiar. The relationship between Cordelia (aka Posey) and Liam reminded me at times of Maggie and Malone, which is a good thing but I never really got a distinct impression of them as an individual couple. Everything about this book seemed to be a throw back to previous Kristan Higgins books from the setting to the characters, even at times to the plot.

I won't go into details about the story line, because the product description is fairly spot on. However, it does not mention that Liam Murphy is a widower and has a 15 year-old daughter. This does play a significant role in the book as well as the fact that Cordelia and Emma (Liam's late wife) were friendly in high school. Unlike most stories about widowers, his wife was not a shrew nor a cheater. She, like all Kristan Higgins characters, is completely rounded.

If you have never read a Kristan Higgins book before, the slight repetition won't be a problem for you. If you have read her, this isn't one to skip. While the book may be a bit recycled and familiar, it is still a delightful read. Some of the best parts of the book are the relationships the main characters have with secondary characters - that is what makes a Kristan Higgins book so strong. While I may not go back and reread this book over and over like I do with Catch of the Day, All I Ever Wanted, Too Good To Be True, and Just One of the Guys, it is still a really good read and completely worth staying up until midnight to get!

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Classic Higgans, but it's missing something October 31, 2011

By RomanceWriter

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Before you read any further, I want to go on record as saying that I think Kristan Higgans is, like, a romantic literary genius. I usually LOVE her books, pre-ordering them as soon as they're announced. That being said, I just wasn't feeling this one. The premise of the story is classic Higgans, with a quirky female lead, loveable yet offbeat family and friends living in a New England small town, and the sexy, out-of-reach hero. My problems with this book are this: Posey was so much of a pleaser, she let people walk all over her - her cousin Gretchen, the ex-boyfriend, and even Liam at one point. I get that she had a tough time in high school, I get that she's a tiny thing that can't gain weight, I even get the insecurities brought on by finding out about her birth mother. But she's a 34 year-old woman who should be strong enough at this point to know when people are using her.

My other problem is Liam, with his OCD and paranoid obsession with his teenaged daughter. Not a great hero, in my opinion, but then I'm a fan of the "alpha male" type of guy, which Liam is definitely not. I agree with another reviewer who said it was disturbing how often he reminisced about his love for his dead wife, how he felt the first time he saw her, how her skin felt, etc etc etc... It made it hard to buy that he was falling in love with Posey. Again, I get that he was shaken by his wife's death and his own accident later, and I totally understand a parent's fear of leaving their child alone. But it bothered me how he treated Posey, and how she let him - even pleaded with him at one point, begging him to see that she was "worth it."

The best scene in the book is between Posey and her mother near the end, where a long-held secret is revealed. THAT scene is what I look for in a Kristan Higgans book - emotional and real - and it was the only scene of its kind in the whole book. Even the prom scene later didn't ring true to me, and left me unsatisfied with the HEA ending.

I still love KH and I will still pre-order her books, but this is not one I'll be re-reading.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't even finish it January 11, 2012

By Bobgirl

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Higgins is also one of my favorites and she jumped to the top of my auto-buy list with her hysterically funny, brilliantly written previous novels. This one? Awful! I was having trouble staying involved just a few pages at a time and then finally abandoned it about a third of the way through. SO disappointing!

I don't think it has as much to do with her shift into writing in the third person, as much as she created uninteresting and boring characters. Posey had no pizzazz, fire or charm. Liam was rather unlikable and was almost a caricature of extreme parenting in raising his daughter. The parts where he was hassling her teenage beau were not funny at all and really were a bit disturbing.

Oh, I know that, in the end, Posey calmed him down, made friends with his daughter, showed him how fabulous she was and they fell in love. But I could not waste my time with this terrible story to find out how.

One more thing: Was anyone else creeped out with Posey's constant exclamations of "Oh, bieber?" Is this really what a 30-something woman would say? Do I really need to be jolted out of the story with visions of a teenager with exceptional hair? Ugh!

Sorry, Kristan! Maybe next time?