Bonus: Finding Perfect

HQN Books

Finding Perfect
Susan Mallery
2010

The Summary
"When Pia O'Brian's best friend dies, Pia expects to inherit her cherished cat.  Instead, the woman leaves Pia three frozen embryos.  With a disastrous track record in the romance department and the parenting skills of a hamster, Pia doesn't think she's meant for motherhood.  But determined to do the right thing, Pia decides to become a single mother.  Only to meet a gorgeous, sexy hunk on the very same day.

"A former foster-care kid now rich beyond his wildest dreams, Raoul Moreno runs a camp for needy children in Fool's Gold, California.  After his last relationship, Raoul thought he was done with women and commitment.  Still, he can't get sweet, sexy Pia out of his mind--and proposes a crazy plan.  But can such an unconventional beginning really result in the perfect ending?"

The Good
I've had some experience with Susan Mallery's "Fool's Gold Romance" series.  So far, I've completed four books in the series (barely a dent considering there are nearly thirty books altogether), and I've found many of the same good qualities in each book.  Although I find the plot a bit predictable, I still enjoyed Finding Perfect.

Pia is a lovely character, who's faced with a difficult choice:  motherhood at the bequest of dying friend.  Given this strangely sweet request, she doesn't know what to do--and who can blame her?  Her decisions, however, reflect her growth as an individual as she dives into motherhood and struggles to balance her professional life with her love life.

I liked it.  It's one of many, which makes it something of a face in the crowd, but I liked reading it and that's really the only thing that matters.

The Bad
Reliable predictability.

Like most romance novels, Finding Perfect features a similar plot:  boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl are driven apart by circumstances beyond their control and/or their inability to see eye to eye, boy and girl manage to live happily-ever-after.  Sometimes, it involves different circumstances--girl returning to her hometown, or girl recovering from some previous loss and learning she can love again, and etc.--but it's mostly the same.

That's what makes it a comforting.

The Ugly
Sure, motherhood is a beautiful thing.  But it can also be incredibly painful--and, well, scary.

There's so much that can go wrong and, for Pia, it's a heart-wrenching opportunity to relive a past loss that she never expected.  It squeezed at my heart unexpectedly and left me feeling a little breathless.