The Girl Most Likely To... [Mass Market Paperback]

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Yes, there was romance, but it was secondary to the theme of lying to others with tragic results. Good people lie and continue the lies for years with horrible, terrible results. A lot of different people do mean things to each other, which makes it hard to like them. The author had justifications for a lot of it. For example, Kat was raised in an abusive home which affected her decision making abilities, along with some other reasons. Eventually there is truth and forgiveness and a surprise revelation at the end. The story shows the power and necessity of forgiveness. There was a happy ending, but it felt a little empty. I was still hurting from the 20 or more years of suffering by some people. The story kept my interest. I wanted to know what would happen. If you're looking for romance, I do not recommend it, but it was ok for other reasons.

STORY BRIEF:
Kat's father was abusive to her and her mother. Kat's boyfriend Riley broke up with her before she could tell him she was pregnant. Kat's mother told Kat to run away. Kat left town and was gone for 20 years. She is now gorgeous, rich, and has come back to town hoping to get some apologies.

DATA:
Story length: 340 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 5. Setting: 2007 Persuasion, W. Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, and Grand Cayman Island. Copyright: 2009. Genre: women's fiction and contemporary romance.

CAUTION ONE SPOILER:

I had a hard time accepting the author's motive for Riley's lie. As a teenager, he was in love with Kat. His dad told him he had to break up with her or he'd lose his car and playing school sports. I think most teenagers in love would say something like "my dad is making me do this. Can you wait for me? We'll get back together later." Instead Riley just said "Go away, Kat. It's over." It was the main reason Kat left town for 20 years - the basis of the book. I wish the author would have come up with something different.

Having previously read Knock Me Off My Feet, I had hoped this would be a similar book that I would also enjoy.

It wasn't. I found very little to like about Kat Cavenaugh and found it hard to be sympathetic or to root for her to get a happy ending.

I thought Kat was too much of a victim. A victim of her father, a victim of Riley and a victim of fate. She did very little to better her own life. The riches she flashed around in Persuasion were not from her own success and hard work but an inheritance from her former landlord.

That also annoyed me about Kat. She didn't work. She had no kind of job and her only aspiration was revenge.

To me, Kat was immature. She denied her son his father for 20 years and instead of wanting to reunite them, she sought to rub Riley's face in it. Never once did she think about how this would affect her son.

I liked Riley and found him a very sympathetic character. He was the opposite of Kat, taking control and responsibility for his life. Carrie cut the funding for his clinic, but instead of accepting and vowing revenge, he set out to build it himself. When he discovered he had been denied knowing his son, he didn't swear revenge, he set out to find his son.

The most annoying thing about this book was the secondary characters. Too many of them were crazy and the rest seemed to have very little point. Rachel, Jeff, the truck driver and his extended family were unnecessary. You would need a flow chart to keep up with everyone.

Carrie was too over the top. She went from crazy obsessed to nearly cured, and I don't think that happens; then Madeline, the only secondary character I felt sympathy for, also became crazy; and then Virgil, who was probably always slightly crazy, became the main villain. I didn't understand it.

It was like the author couldn't decide who the bad guy should be. Let's try Carrie. OK, not working; moving on to Madeline. Still not working. Oh, I know! Virgil! He's a wife beating child molester. Perfect!

There was just too much going on and the story felt very disjointed and not romantic. I was never wanting Riley and Kat to get together. I was more invested in the relationship between Madeline and Matt, which never went anywhere.

The big reveal at the end was also slightly insulting to the reader and came from way out in left field.

Overall, I didn't like this book. It was written well, but the story wasn't good. I wouldn't recommend it unless you were on a quest to read the complete works of Susan Donovan.

You won't find the usual lighthearted romantic comedy you've come to expect from Susan Donovan. It is, at times, dark and sad, and definitely dramatic. That being said, this is a terrific book, well written and captivating. It explores the complicated lives of two wonderful characters in Kat and Riley.

When I read the plot line where Kat has kept Riley's son a secret for 20 years, I cringed. How can that type of betrayal ever be corrected? They ping-pong between anger, bitterness, forgiveness and love. But these two were meant to be together and Donovan realistically reunites them without silly, drawn out misunderstandings or assumptions. Twenty years have matured them to the point where they can forge a new, adult relationship based on total honesty.

This book borders on tragedy in many areas, especially the abhorrent actions by Kat's father and Riley's scary ex-fiancee. It has enough twists and turns that you will find yourself re-reading some parts just to keep it all straight.

What I especially liked about this book was the lack of frustration as the story moved along. In the middle of other books, I'll roll my eyes, thinking someone would NEVER act that way or say such dumb things, and this book had none of that. Kat and Riley expressed themselves in a real way that made their love story all the more satisfying. I thoroughly enjoyed it.