Now That You Mention It
Ratings7
Average rating4.1
New York Times–Bestselling Author: “The dialogue is witty and the prose is smooth . . . [A] moving take on starting over and repairing past hurts.” —Publishers Weekly One step forward. Two steps back. The Tufts scholarship that put Nora Stuart on the path to becoming a Boston medical specialist was a step forward. Being hit by a car and then overhearing her boyfriend hit on another doctor when she thought she was dying? Two major steps back. Injured in more ways than one, Nora feels her carefully built life cracking at the edges. There’s only one place to land: home. But the tiny Maine community she left fifteen years ago doesn’t necessarily want her. At every turn, someone holds the prodigal daughter of Scupper Island responsible for small-town drama and big-time disappointments. With a tough islander mother who’s always been distant, a wild-child sister in jail, and a withdrawn teenage niece as eager to ditch the island as Nora once was, Nora has her work cut out for her if she’s going to take what might be her last chance to mend the family. Balancing loss and opportunity, dark events from her past with hope for the future, Nora will discover that tackling old pain makes room for promise . . . and the chance to begin again. “Powerful, entertaining . . . Balancing emotion, humor, and a redemptive theme, Higgins hits all the right notes with precision, perception, and panache.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “She only gets better with each book.” —New York Times
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One of those perfectly comforting reads to curl up with and block out the world until you reluctantly turn the last page.
Nora is a gastro specialist who returns home to Scupper Island after a terrifying ordeal.
Here, she uncovers family secrets, bonds with her recalcitrant niece Poe and puts the past to rest.
I loved the gentle flow of this story (and the scene with Tweety the bird at her mother's house made me LOL!)
A wonderfully engaging read. Recommend!
I have always been a fan and enjoyed this book as much as others. It was really great! I laughed and felt it was fun.
I gave up on Kristan Higgins' contemporary romances because they were full of desperate heroines whose lives were unfulfilled without their one true love. But then Higgins wrote two very intelligent, thoughtful women's fiction novels, [b:If You Only Knew 23280208 If You Only Knew Kristan Higgins https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435548241s/23280208.jpg 42818499], and [b:On Second Thought 29095428 On Second Thought Kristan Higgins https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482936837s/29095428.jpg 49331422], and I crept back into her orbit somewhat warily. Now That You Mention It is a kind of hybrid Higgins – half throwback to her romance days and half more mature women's fiction – and for the most part it succeeds.Nora Stuart returns to her small Maine island hometown to recover from a serious accident, although there is an even more serious Big Bad Event that took place several months earlier that she remains traumatized by. Back at home she deals with her taciturn, self-sufficient mother and her troubled niece Poe, who is living in Maine while Nora's sister Lily serves a jail sentence in Oregon. Nora also encounters her former classmates who remember her as a fat, awkward nerd who escaped the island on a scholarship to become a successful doctor. Although she only plans to stay for a few months, she hopes to find out the mystery behind her father's disappearance many years ago, and to form closer relationships with her mother and Poe. The parts that feel like “old Higgins”- * Boyfriend who is a heel * Loyal dog Boomer * Small island town setting* Taciturn (but not grumpy) potential love interest* Lots of slapstick and bathroom humor (she's a gastroenterologist, so there's plenty of potential for fart and poop jokes)The parts that feel like “new and improved (IMO) Higgins” – * Better developed and nuanced family dynamics* Flashback chapters that help the reader understand said dynamics* Lots of competence porn (Nora is really good at her job, and people acknowledge her skills)* Nora isn't desperate to find love and get married, and in fact she gets rid of asshole boyfriend pretty quickly* A truly horrifying flashback scene (trigger warnings for assault and attempted rape) to the Big Bad Event * Love scenes that aren't perfect! In short, I guess I'm hooked again. Good job, Ms. Higgins. Maybe scale back on the diarrhea jokes next time though? ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for honest review.
