Up Close and Personal

With her dead husband’s mother still blaming her for his death, Elizabeth Farefield decides to take a break and rethink with a cruise to the Caribbean. Robert Burnhamwood likes being the playboy; one night is enough for him since his divorce. However, he begins to believe there’s a second chance for love when he meets Elizabeth on a cruise. The pathway to love is fraught with challenges when his youngest daughter doesn’t approve of the relationship and his older daughter goes to live with a man of whom he doesn’t approve. When a series of rapes occur in his daughter’s neighborhood, Robert is left wondering if he and Elizabeth will have the future they both want, or if the string of problems will pull them apart?

These two characters have had difficult pasts and develop well throughout as they try to clutch onto the little bit of happiness they bring to one another. Author Jody Vitek gives us the lonely widow being terrorized by her mother-in-law and accused of causing her husband’s death, while Robert is a divorcee who just wants to have fun. The setting on the cruise is fun and enjoyable and then the book gradually works into them going back to real life where the real work begins. Ms. Vitek has also given us a book with realism of being widowed and divorced. A very good read where the reader will be aching for the characters to have their happily ever after.

Lynn-Alexandria McKendrick