If You Only Knew

Higgins is a skilled author but this is where we part ways for good. She's funny, she can write heartbreaking and joyous emotional scenes, and her characters come alive on the page. But I'm tired of her “I must find a man NOW before my biological clock explodes” heroines. Jenny, the main narrator in her so-called Women's Fiction debut (as opposed to her straight Contemporary romances), is so desperate to find a man and pop out babies that she fantasizes about every man she meets, even a stranger in the park. At one point when she sees the ongoing object of her affection, her ovaries literally twitch. And despite this love interest clearly telling her he is “for recreational use only,” she is convinced that all he needs is the love of the right woman to save him and they'll live happily ever after.

I realize that by the end of the novel Jenny has lost many of her illusions and taken some steps to regain what's left of her pride, but by then I was too annoyed to care. Higgins' female characters just aren't my cup of tea. I'd rather read romances by authors such as Julie James, Emma Barry, Ainslie Paton and La Nora, in which the heroines are just fine on their own, with lives that are enhanced by meeting the hero instead of saved.