Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins
Romantic Contemporary
Ebook
October 25, 2011
HQN Books

Favorite Quote: “Think she likes me?

“Of course she does Liam. It’s the law isn’t it? Women must fall at your feet.”

When former bad boy heartthrob Liam Murphy walked into Cordelia (Posey) Osterhagen’s parent’s restaurant she had imagined a million scenarios…but never one involving her wearing an ill fitting German waitress outfit and her cheeks stuffed with potato dumplings. Posey has always loved Liam from the first moment she saw him ride up on his motorcycle, decked out in leather and wearing an attitude a miles wide. When he began to work at her parent’s restaurant, she thought she had died an gone to heaven, but Liam never noticed her beyond being his bosses daughter and unintentionally breaks Posey’s heart. Liam goes on to fall in love and marry the town’s golden girl and leaves town. Now years later, Liam is back with his fifteen year old daughter. His wife passed away a few years ago, and he wants Nicole to be raised in his hometown, close to her grandparents.

Liam is happy to be back in Bellsford. Though his high school reputation left a lot to be desired, he is all grown up now and just wants to raise his daughter in peace. The woman of the town all to well remember the former bad boy and stalk him like he’s the last chocolate chip cookie in the package. Except for one-Posey. Not sure if he should be relieved or put out; he enjoys the fact that Posey isn’t grabbing, pinching, or slipping phone numbers into wherever she can reach. As he and Posey run into one another more and more around town, he stops seeing the skinny sixteen year old from the past and begins to see the woman right in front of him.

When Liam is put into a precarious position with his in laws, he has to make a difficult decision that once again breaks Posey’s heart. Only this time, Posey’s got problems of her own and she may not be so forgiving this second time around.

Until There Was You is classic Higgins. A small town story of unrequited love and second chances. Eccentric characters, humorous dialogue, and crazy situations will have you sighing in frustration while trying not to laugh as the hero and heroine take the long road to finding redemption. I enjoyed the fact that we got not only the heroine’s POV but also the hero’s. It’s always amazing to watch (or read in this case) the same scene told by two different people. What Posey remembers is vastly different then what Liam remembers and it causes quite some confusion on both sides.

Posey is a genuinely nice person. A successful business woman who feels she is cursed because of her diminutive statue. She owns a salvage yard which I found fascinating. She doesn’t waste time on artifice or games when it comes to what she wants. Her self confidence level is low due to her high school years and lack of dates; causing her to be a bona fide people pleaser. There were quite a few scenes when I really wanted her to step up and make her feelings known rather then allowing herself to be a doormat to so many people. She is well loved but the smell of desperation clings to her as you watch and listen to her around Liam.

Liam was harder to connect with. Not because he was mean but because he’s a bit self centered. Though I understood his attitude; his wife’s sudden death from cancer left him reeling and it hits him in the form of panic attacks that if something happens to him, his daughter will be all alone. He focuses a lot of Nicole, and becomes hilariously over protective when his baby begins to assert some independence. There is a funny scene where he asks Posey to the movies and while she thinks it’s a date, she soon comes to realize that he has brought her along to spy on his daughter and her date.

The lights went down and Liam reached over for some popcorn. “Get your own, “ Posey said, leaning away.

“Wow, that’s not nice.”

“Well, neither is taking me to spy on your kid Liam!”

“Look, …she’s fifteen years old. Bozo there is a senior. Do the math.”

“What math?”

“The sex math.”

“Your an idiot.”

While he does apologize, you get the feeling that he really can’t understand why Posey might be upset with the situation. I say he’s self centered because a lot of his dialogue centers around his high school sexual escapades and his attraction to woman. He expects it. And we are inundated with plenty of scenes of woman hitting on him. It’s funny but sad in a away as he begins to understand the harm he caused by his carefree attitude regarding females in retrospect to how he would feel if some boy did that to his daughter.

Posey and Liam’s relationship is very slow to start. It’s a lot of crushing on Posey’s side and obliviousness on Liam’s. Liam begins to notice her more for the fact she is one of the few women who doesn’t throw themselves at him. There have some wonderful funny dialogue between them that will leave you chuckling. The time they spend together is sweet yet part of me wanted Posey to harden a little. You can feel her crush from her past intermingling with her feelings now. After I was finished with this, part of me was left wondering if Posey hadn’t known Liam from the past, would she have been so desperate for him now?

The secondary characters in here are wonderfully strange. A little over the top in characterization. Posey’s parents are overwhelmingly protective and treat her like a child. Her best friend Katie gave me the creeps with her odd relationship with her son. She was way too close with him, and Posey made me happy when she finally told her she had to ease off because the things she said and did weren’t normal. My favorite characters though were Posey’s brother Henry and his partner Jon. Funny and ever supportive-they always had her back. Ialso liked that fact that Liam’s wife wasn’t portrayed in a bad manner in order to smooth the way for him to start another relationship. She was nice woman who befriended Posey in high school and honestly loved Liam.

The ending wraps up faster then I thought it would using some clichéd metaphors to finally put Posey ahead of the game with Liam. I also was disappointed in her cousin’s storyline. So much effort was put into building up her issues, then they just fade away to nothing. All in all a nice, somewhat lightweight story that is sure to appeal to Higgins fans.

Overall Rating: C

Recent Reviews:
The Book Pushers – C-
The Brazen Bookworm
Romance Around the Corner – 3/5
Caught in a FAB Romance – 4/5
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