The Perfect Present

Karen Swan's books have so much more depth than many others in this genre. All of the characters are strongly written, there will be some surprises, the plot is not predictable and it's more about the growth of the heroine than the romance. What I like particularly is that she doesn't do two-dimensional baddies. Yes, the “rival woman” turned out to be very far from perfect, but she had a traumatic past as well, and the charming surface image was still true. In so much “women's writing” the rival woman or erring boyfriend/husband is so ridiculously selfish and cruel that it isn't credible that the supposedly intelligent hero or heroine could possibly have stuck with them. Laura's boyfriend is lovely, he just isn't the right one. I have read a few of Karen Swan's books and she hasn't disappointed me yet.