Jennifer Archer The Me I Used to be

The Me I Used to be

Jennifer Archer

Harlequin Next, Oct 2005, $5.50

ISBN: 0373230443

Allyson Cole knows why she suffers from a commitment phobia, but never reveals her reason to her persistent boyfriend Warren Noble, who periodically proposes, but she has always turned him down. However, the thirty-six year old health food restaurant owner shocks herself more than her stunned lover when she finally gives in and says yes, though her fears rip her stomach into overdrive.

Perhaps her agreeing to marry Warren is because deep down she had a premonition that something from her past will return; that very night the teenage grandson she never met arrives at her door. Nick Pearson is the son of the daughter that Allyson gave up for adoption twenty years ago. He insists he has no one to turn to as his mom just died. Stunned and wanting to help him as she could never do with her daughter, Allyson and Nick go on a journey to find his grandfather, a person she has not seen since she was a small child, but inside she knows she is seeking to make amends with those she cherishes including her Nick.

Nick is the catalyst, but Allyson is the focus of this fine tale of a woman facing middle age, forced to face bitter memories that she buried in the back of her mind. Allyson matures rapidly, partially because she knows Nick needs her, but mostly because she encounters the emotional baggage that she has avoided for years. Jennifer Archer hits a bulls-eye with this fine portrayal of a woman having a second chance to right her mistakes.

Harriet Klausner