Somebody To Love

Kristan Higgins follows up her excellent book “The Next Best Thing” with Parker’s story in “Somebody to Love”. Parker Harrington Welles is a single mother and children’s author who shares custody of her son with her best friend’s husband. Parker and Ethan were friends who tried being lovers and discovered it wasn’t right for either of them. Ethan is now married to Lucy and Parker is thrilled for them but lonely.
Parker has grown up in a wealthy environment and is shocked when her father is indicted for insider trading and she ends up virtually homeless. She discovers that she has inherited property in Maine from her deceased aunt and decides to go up and flip the property. Much to her dismay, one of her father’s lawyers show more (who she has always called Thing One) follows her to her new home. James Cahill, a.k.a. Thing One has always wanted to get together with Parker and aside from one night at a family wedding, she has ignored him.
Parker discovers her new house is a wreck and she needs help from James to get it fixed up. Things move along and romance blooms but misunderstandings on both sides and Parker’s inability to trust in relationships cause problems. Parker is not a spoiled little pampered princess but she has never put faith in love since she was a child. James has not had an easy life with his family either and he has a heavy burden that he bears all alone. Ms. Higgins has done a great job of portraying two people who have so much love in them but can’t seem to find the one to give it to!
Parker is a sweetie and James is hot. The reader roots for them from the beginning. I knew I was going to love this relationship when I read the following paragraph…. “Thing One was up on the roof. Shirtless. Again. At the very sight of him, every egg in her ovaries leaped to attention and started banging their tiny fists against the wall. Let us out, Parker! Now!” I mean, how can you not want this couple to work out. I loved this book! show less

Normally I think Kristan Higgins’ romances are cute, featuring an adorable love interest, but with a highly irritating female protagonist who engages in embarrassing behavior and/or doesn’t know when to shut it. Which is probably why I enjoyed SOMEBODY LIKE YOU as much as I did: there’s no cringe-worthy word vomit! Parker is a sensible, unspoiled, caring, actually desirable female! James is… Thing One. (Okay, no, but seriously, I’m always a little wary of a dual-narrative romance, but James is great in his caring and, well, his normalcy.) Higgins brings us back to the beloved oceanside Maine town of Gideon’s Cove, and we encounter endearing supporting characters both old and new. The wit and humor is as good as ever. With show more each book of hers, Higgins moves more and more away from her old formula for romance to explore refreshing new situations and characters. Loved it! Can’t wait for more. show less

This book was pretty good actually. I loved the romance, I loved the story, I really found it quite amazing. It was light, with humor, sarcasm, and some drama. It was totally worth my time, and I must say that I really enjoyed staying in the pages. Read it pretty quick too, because it groped at my mind, making me want more.

Well, true it's an adult book due to several sex scenes (not explicit, but still), which isn't my usual preferred genre. But I can say with a hand on my heart that I might actually read it again. It was that good. There were a couple of scenes that got me laughing pretty hard, and there was the awesome epilogue that was... well... beyond romantic (if such a term exists).

I would totally recommend it to romance lovers show more of ages 18 and up.

So, the story is about this single mom, famous writer, very rich woman, Parker and her path to finding the love of her life. She goes through a troublesome childhood, which obviously rubs off her adult years. She's totally no experience in dating, or even talking to men, which is kind of weird, but hey there are all sorts of people out there. She's kind of shy and a little arrogant at the same time, but even with all her perks she still managed to get one special man to love her. And then brutally pushed him away... You gotta read it to learn more ;)

The main characters:
*Parker - I loved the strength of her character. She had gone from a multimillionaire to a penniless woman overnight, but she still didn't freak out. Well, unless we count a certain rodent incident, but hey that's quite explainable. I was in awe of the vibe she had. Even though she was lonely, with no new ideas to write, and perhaps no prospects for a job, she kept hopeful. The only thing I didn't like about her was her negativity concerning men. It was like she expected men to fail her. Period. But since there are many women who feel the same way nowadays, this made Parker look all the more real.

*James - It was so funny to see Parker call him Thing One. Then slowly go onto calling him James. It was adorable. Well, what can I say about him? Tall, dark and handsome. Good with manual labor. Able to repair a house in a couple of weeks. And quite romantic. What more can one want from a guy, right?

I'd suggest you give this book a chance and see for yourself just how good it is.

Note:I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review show less

This book was sweet, and charming, and quick. Because sometimes, what I really want is something mindless, where I know there is a HEA, and no vampires or aliens.

Odd, I know.

Parker's rich, but she's down to earth, and she's a famous children's author who just finished her ongoing series that she hates. And then her father loses the family fortune, including her trust fund and her son's trust fund, and her house.

So, good things first. I really liked James and Parker's chain-smoking sexpot great-aunt (I think it's her great-aunt. I returned the book to the library already and can't check).

Not so good things. Parker annoyed me. A lot. Her inner arguments with the Holy Rollers started off quirky and became irksome. She also waffled show more personality-wise all over the board. And had about as much common sense as you'd expect in a spoiled rich kid.

(Actually, I'm noticing this is a writing tool of Higgins - inner monologues of the heroines that make me roll my eyes.)

Fun, fluffy, not my favorite Higgins. show less

Really fun book with plenty of humor and showing the importance of second chances. Parker is the single mother of an adorable 5 year old boy. She has a solid friendship with the boy's father and his wife. She's had a best selling series of children's picture books. Her relationship with her father isn't too great and she really doesn't like his personal attorney. Things get really bad when her father is arrested for insider trading and she finds out that he lost all their money, including her and her son's trust funds. All she has is a house in Maine that she inherited. She plans to go up, paint it and sell it to get the funds needed to start over. Only, the house is in worse condition than she thought, and James has followed her up show more determined to help. So while her son is with his father, Parker and James are working together on the house, and learning a little more about themselves and each other while they're at it.

I liked Parker. She is an excellent mother to her son. She may be wealthy but she's not really a snob about it (except to James). I liked the way that she donated the proceeds of her children's books. I also enjoyed her snarkiness about the sickly sweet angels in those books. By the time the series ended she really hated those angels and had some really interesting conversations with them throughout the book. Her excellent relationship with her father went down the tubes when she was ten, after she caught him in bed with her babysitter. She has an even worse relationship with James, her father's lawyer, who she calls Thing One. She sees him as a clone of her father. When dear old dad is arrested for insider trading she discovers they are flat broke, except for a house she inherited in Maine. She plans to sell it for the money to start over. Those plans hit a roadbump when she discovers the house is stuffed with junk and falling apart. I loved the descriptions of what she was seeing and feeling, and the scene with the mouse was hysterical. James's arrival and offer to help is met with grudging acceptance as she desperately needs him and resents it. As the days go on they reach a tentative truce and begin to get to know each other. Parker discovers that there is a lot more to James than she thought and that he's not such a bad guy after all. There's also a deepening attraction between them that she's reluctant to do anything about. Her son is the most important thing in her life and with all the changes in their lives she doesn't want to make things worse by introducing a man into it. Just as things are looking up for the two of them someone from James's past shows up and throws a wrench in the works, followed by a funny and heartbreaking scene in the local bar. I really enjoyed seeing the way that Parker was able to overcome her obstacles and come out stronger on the other side.

James was fantastic. He had gotten a job with Parker's father shortly after finishing law school. I loved his sense of loyalty and how he always did the best he could. He saw early on that Parker and her father didn't have a good relationship, but he didn't know why. He did know that there was something about her that he wanted to protect. Since he always got dragged along when her dad attended any family event, he saw a lot of Parker. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that he was in love with her. I loved the way that he was always doing things for her, trying to make things better. I loved the fact that he went up to Maine to help her on his own, even though he let her believe that her father had sent him. I thought he was incredibly patient with her, considering how badly she tended to treat him. James worries about being around her son. He has terribly guilty feelings about something that happened when he was a kid and believes that it means he can never trust himself to have a family. It also caused a rift in his family that has left him feeling pretty isolated except for his friendship with Parker's dad. Being in Maine with Parker has started to lessen those feelings and he starts to dream of a future with her. He also has some pretty funny conversations with himself about Ethan, her son's father. He is quite jealous of Ethan, who he refers to as The Paragon. He starts to feel really hopeful when a blast from his past drives Parker away. I loved the ending as he wins her back. The epilogue was sweet.

I loved the setting of the tiny town of Gideon's Cove and all the fun characters there. Maggie and Malone from an earlier book made several appearances. I really liked the old guys from the hardware store who were so helpful to Parker. I loved the dog Beauty. Seeing Parker fall in love with her after hearing her story just showed how much love Parker had to share. My favorite character was Parker's Aunt Lavinia. She was a crusty old broad who smokes too much, talks a lot about her booty calls, and has a heart of gold. She gives Parker a job working in her flower shop which turns out to be perfect for her. She has a greenhouse out back where she grows some of her own plants. The part where Parker sells one of Lavinia's "ferns" to a customer was a riot. I really liked the way that the entire town became such a special part of Parker's life. show less

If you were looking from the outside at the life of Parker Harrington Welles, you’d think she had it all. She has a trust fund, is a best selling children’s author (even though the characters may make her throw up a little in her mouth), a wonderful son and never wanted for anything. In the blink of an eye life as Parker knew it changed, her financial whiz father’s going to prison for insider trading, the family mansion she grew up in is on the auction block and the only thing with any possibilities is the home her Great Aunt left her in Maine. When she first sets eyes on the place it’s not exactly a mansion, in fact it’s not even livable, and if that’s not bad enough her father’s former attorney and minion “Thing One” show more is offered to help her fix it up. Why is that bad, well in addition to her father liking him more that her, in a moment of madness a few years earlier she and Thing One did the deed.
James Cahill has a lot of regrets in his life but the one thing he’s never regretted is going to work for Harry Welles who’s always respected him and treated him like gold, if only his daughter thought the same and yes he’s in for quite a summer working beside Parker but his loyalty to Harry is worth every snide remark and insult, oh and it doesn’t hurt that he’s never gotten over that earth shattering encounter when they made love.
As Parker and James begin their rehab project it becomes quite clear to both of them that there is more there than meets the eye, for one she’s not the insensitive, arrogant snob and he’s not the unfeeling minion and mini me of her father and just maybe they’re who they’ve both been looking for. But there’s a lot against them too and the biggest problem they have is each other, if they could get past all of their preconceived and most of the time untrue feelings about each other they might just get to the truth, that they just might be what they’ve both been searching for “Somebody to Love”.
Kristan Higgins really knows how to get to the heart and soul of this reader by giving me everything I look for in a romance and then some, by giving me characters that are far from perfect but still embed themselves in my heart and we’re not talking about just the hero and heroine but all the other major and minor characters too and then there’s the story and my oh my what a story it is, you see Kristan usually brings us main stream people to star in her novels but this time she brought us a riches to rags story that not brings someone down off a pedestal as much as someone who learns what’s really important in life and that aint always money. Then there’s the romance that you know from the start is going to end up happy and still you’re scratching your head that she’s picked this particular pair to fall in love until all of a sudden you get to that ah ha moment when it all starts to make perfect sense and now the only thing holding them back, is well them.
Thank you Ms. Higgins for another unforgettable romance and the couple who make it all possible.

here's the Q&A Kristan and I did
http://thereadingfrenzy.blogspot.com/2012/04/q-with-kristan-higgins-and-review-o... show less

The romances I read are usually either paranormal or historical. I like the fantastical element of either paranormal creatures and mythologies or reading about a time I will never be able to visit. So contemporaries have never really appealed to me. But I decided to get out of my romance comfort zone and try one. This one popped up on NetGalley, so I thought I would give it a try.

And I really actually enjoyed it. The most dramatic it got were family squabbles and miscommunication, but I did not miss not having much action at all. I think really liking the characters helped. I especially liked James. He was sweet and funny. I loved the way he teased Parker. And Parker was great too. I was a little worried because in the description it show more mentions she loses her trust fund after her dad goes to jail for insider training. Ah-oh, a spoiled rich girl - not a character I can sympathize with. But even though she does live off her father's money, she is not spoiled or lazy. She works as a children's author and gives the money she earns from that to a charity. She doesn't freak out when she finds out she no longer has that trust fund. She goes through her options and does the best she can to provide for herself and her young son.

Sex is very mild - as in, making out and then cut away to next morning, but I really didn't miss it. The story and characters were compelling enough to keep me satisfied.

Very positive experience for my first foray into contemporary romance.

ARC provided through NetGalley. show less