The Year of Loving Contemporary Romance
Parvati Press
October 10, 2016
433
Art gallerist Sarah Paige’s world is crumbling. One daughter barely speaks to her and the other is off the rails. Sarah is struggling to keep her gallery afloat in a tough market when she learns that her most beloved friend has cancer. In the midst of her second divorce, two men come into her life: an older man who offers companionship and stability and an exciting younger man whose life is as chaotic as hers.
Sarah’s courage, humor, and spirit strengthen her, but how much can she bear, and what sustains her when all else falls away?
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Forty-eight year old Sarah Melissa Paige has been married two times and neither was successful. Husband number one and the father of her two daughters, Dani and sixteen year old Alexandra, was attorney George Calhoun, a man from a society family and a family that did not accept her. She cheated on George with Clifton Perini, an artist who turned out to need a mother more than he needed a wife.
It is George who has created the most heartache for her, since he and Sarah differ totally on raising their daughters. Dani is in college and won’t even answer the phone when Sarah calls. Alex is wasting her young life on drugs and sex and is constantly being thrown out of school. Sarah wants her daughter Alex to pay the consequences for her actions but George rewards her with expensive gifts. It is George and his new wife who are always telling the girls that their mother is to blame for all their troubles. As hard as she tries to help Alex she always meets a roadblock by George, what child wouldn’t side with the parent who lets them do whatever they want?
Sarah owns an art gallery, and that is another one of her problems, because it is bleeding red. It is a visit to the pharmacy for Alex’s new medication where she meets Scott Bauer and it was not the most elegant meeting. Sarah tripped over her umbrella and found herself with her skirt riding up to her waist and her thong totally exposed. When Scott comes to the gallery the next day they wind up sleeping together and it is Sarah that initiates it.
After their first meeting Sarah is sure she will never see Scott again, in fact she didn’t even know his name until her best friend Trudi went to see her new oncologist with pancreatic cancer. You guessed it the new doctor is none other than Dr. Scott Bauer. Sarah isn’t ready for a relationship but is more than willing to have as many booty calls as possible. Scott is not the only man who enters her life there is also Carl Hopkins a man with money and in his sixties. Carl also happened to make a purchase that brought new life to the gallery.
Scott is recently divorced and the father of two young children and as far as Sarah is concerned “been there, done that”. Scott wants more than booty calls but Sarah has a very full plate, trouble with George and her two daughters. Her love for her daughters is unconditional but they see her interference as a reason to hate her.
I enjoyed this book but did not love it. I found it to be long and drawn out, and just a story about a woman trying to live her life in spite of her troubles. I have read other books by Ms. Slatton and loved them, but this one did not do it for me.