Where She Belongs

Excellent! This is a wonderfully told story, enjoyable partly because it is so delightfully unpredictable. It's not every day that you find a contemporary that has you flipping pages like a suspense novel! Johnnie Alexander is an excellent author and played my emotions like crazy in this book.

From the start, I was hooked...when widowed Shelby goes to her grandparents' old homestead, which she has just bought back from the man who took it from her grandfather, she is greeted by a man who she finds charming and polite—until he introduces himself, and she realizes that he isn't her restoration contractor—he's the selling owner, the grandson of the man who cheated her grandfather out of his property. Except AJ is determined to be nothing like his grandfather; he'd like to be more like his beloved grandmother.

The story isn't just about belonging or even about who you are, though those themes are strong; it's also about consequences (setting up nicely for book two) and legacy and family and neighbors. The house, Misty Willow, is almost a character of its own, with the rich history of the Lassiter family.

I loved Shelby's two young daughters and AJ's dog Lila especially. All three added so much to the story, as well as some great comic relief. And the secondary characters, good and bad, added lots of depth to the story and even to the definition of who the main characters are. It's layered and multifaceted and delightfully unexpected. Don't miss this one.

Note: Adding a sixth star for some really great Cary Grant trivia/quotes!!