Saturday, March 9, 2019

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson



Shandi Pierce didn't believe in love at first sight.  That was before she instantly fell in love with William Ashe.  Shandi has enough things going on in her life.  She is a single mom with a three year old son, Nathan.  Working on her degree, she decides that commuting from her home an hour away is just too draining, so she is about to move into her father's condo in Atlanta to cut down on that stress.  Her mother and father divorced years ago, but the rancor and anger never dissipated over the years, with Shandi stuck firmly in the middle. 

Almost to her new digs, Shandi and her best friend, Walcott stop for gas.  Shandi and Nathan go inside to get something to drink.  They are there when a skinny, hopped-up man comes in with a gun and announces that this is a robbery.  Without thinking, William steps between the man and Nathan and Shandi's heart is stolen just like that.  When William manages to extricate the hostages in the gas station store without any of them being injured, she is even more impressed.

William has his own issues.  He is a brilliant man, who is a scientist and works in a genetics lab.  He is also autistic and caught up in the recent past, where he had a wife he adored and a little girl.  Both were snatched away in a car accident and he is grieving and trying to figure out how to live again.  Are Shandi and Nathan the answer?

Joshilyn Jackson has written an engaging novel that makes the reader think about life and love and how we're all in this thing called life together.  The characters are memorable and the romance is subtle enough that it keeps the reader guessing.  The characteristics of romantic love are probed but parental love is also a major theme.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

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