Disclaimer: I received an eARC for review consideration through NetGalley, on behalf of the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is what I have come to expect from Susan Mallery, heavy on relationships and introspection. And the title plot point playing only a very small role in the overall story. This review contains spoilers, because there was no other way to share my thoughts about this story.

While the story focuses primarily on Jax and Ryleigh, there are other pivotal characters as well that I would have loved to see a little deeper into, namely Marcus, Alex, Harrison and Shannon. And then there is the best character in the book, Ramon, Jax’s African Gray parrot who lives in the bookstore.

While a lot of drama is happening on page in Jax and Ryleigh’s lives, I kept waiting for the promised drama surrounding the diaries, and that just never came. The diaries are a minute part of the story, there are a few angry customers, and a couple of small secrets are revealed when Gayle (a bookstore employee) reads through them to try to identify the unclaimed ones. These secrets are not revealed widely to the whole town.

But the drama occurring elsewhere is interesting, if somewhat weird at times.

Jax and Harrison (her ex-husband) have a fantastic parenting plan in place where they share the house with each one staying there every other week. He wants his girlfriend to stay over on his week which is against the plan and Jax says no. So he proposes to get around it. And then things get really crazy, because he thinks she (Shannon) understands, but Shannon is excitedly planning the wedding and including Jax and her daughter. I completely understand Shannon’s excitement and wanting to form a relationship with Jax for the benefit of the children, but her mother takes things WAY TOO FAR in the questions she asks Jax.

Then there’s Jax and Marcus. Marcus thinks that they are developing a relationship and Jax is thinking it’s just a casual fling, refusing to open herself up to romance and love. She is incredibly controlling about a lot of things, including her relationships. At one point she even tries to set Marcus up with her sister to keep her sister from leaving town.

All Ryleigh wants is to fall in love and get married, so no one is more shocked than she is when she turns down her boyfriend’s proposal. She decides that she needs to change her entire life after this and starts talking about moving to San Diego, which freaks Jax out.

Ryleigh’s best friend, Alex, is super supportive of her choices. She has been there for him and his son since his wife died, and they have become a little family unit of their own. When Alex decides that he’s ready to move on for sex but not romance, he makes Ryleigh a proposition, which she accepts.

Things get messy throughout all of these relationships in really big ways, but ultimately there are happy endings for the sisters (and lessons learned for Harrison).

The highlight of the story is by and far Ramon and his personality. He picks up on phrases that he uses repeatedly in conversations with bookstore staff and customers. His plot line was the most emotional and impactful for me in the book (I cried). And his happily ever after was my favorite of them all.