This may come as a shock to some of you, but Susan Mallery is actually a new-to-me author. Sure, I’ve heard of her. I’ve actually even borrowed a couple of books from the library in the past. Unfortunately, they went back to the library unread for one reason or another. I even have a boxed set on my Kindle of her first four Fool’s Gold books. Now, after reading this story, I know those books will be bumped up on my TBR. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

I related to both Ellen and Unity in different ways. These are some strong women with major weaknesses. They’re both stuck. These women have a beautiful friendship, and while that is a wonderful thing in many ways, it also keeps them stuck since. Unity can see that Ellen has to expand her bubble and break some of the rules that are a holdover to the way her parents raised her, but doesn’t realize her friend is in a rut. Ellen knows Unity is being held captive by her grief, yet doesn’t realize that Unity is also trapped by those same rules. The idea for the friendship list is one sided on Unity’s part, she wants to help her friend out but truly doesn’t see that she needs help, too. Once they both dive in, there are a lot of truths they have to deal with.

In addition to this being a story of two lifelong friends finding themselves, it’s also a love story. I enjoyed reading the bits about Keith and Thaddeus just as much as the rest of the story. This is the most spoiler-ish thing I’ll say in this review, and it’s not really a spoiler. I wasn’t sure how all of the relationships would turn out since this book is classified as women’s fiction, but I got the HEA I’m always looking for and I was overjoyed by that fact. These men are some of the most kind, patient, and understanding humans. Not just with Unity and Ellen, but in general. Thaddeus is wonderful with his aunt and his friends. We don’t get to know him as much as we get to know Keith, but from what I read he is definitely a catch. Keith is an amazing father, although he’s a bit paranoid and too tough on some issues. It all comes from a place of love and concern. (There is one particular issue I have with something he makes his daughter do daily. I get where he’s coming from, but it’s way out of line in my mind.) It’s very apparent that both of these men are fixers. That is why Keith has issues with his daughter that are unexpected for him. When there’s a problem he wants to jump in and fix things without slowing down to really listen to what’s not being said.

The cover of this book is eye catching and fun, but does not represent this story at all. I was expecting Ellen and Unity to spend a lot more time doing these things together. It was surprising that the actually spent more time on the phone with each other than being together in person. That may well have been by design. Like I said, these two are stuck in the beginning of this story. And their friendship helps them stay stuck. By them each having to take their own journey without the other one physically by their side, I think they learned a lot more about themselves.

I had a lot of fun with this story. The teenagers and senior citizens helped to brighten things when they’d get more serious. Because, as much fun and love that this story contained, it also had a lot of deep emotional issues that everyone needed to address.

I’m a huge romance fan and loved that aspect of this story, so I cannot wait to read a book by this author that is actually touted as a romance. She wrote great chemistry in this story so I’m sure it’ll be even better.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

You can read an excerpt from this book on my blog at All In Good Time.