L Is For Little Boxes

Jennifer reviews Celia J. Anderson’s book...

Little Boxes is a contemporary romance that left me thinking about the story long after I finished the book. The heroine is admired by the hero from afar, but the heroine is already married. Her husband dies, and she meets her admirer, but things don’t heat up right away. They become friends, and while they are each attracted to the other, neither one is ready to do anything about it yet. Meanwhile, the heroine’s best friend goes on a long trip, and sends her boxes every few months or so. Inside each box is a quest for her to go on. His goal is to get her to reevaluate her life and be ready to move on.

It’s an interesting premise and the story kept me turning pages because it was exciting to learn about these quests and the ramifications. However, a lot of what the heroine learned about her husband—most of it, actually—was not particularly complimentary and it made me wonder. What kind of a friend would know this information about his best friend and not tell her? Moreover, if he was planning on telling her, why would he basically abandon her and have her find out all of this life-changing information on her own?

Granted, he knew she was getting close to the hero in the book, and the hero provided her with support, as did other people she met along the way. However, it was problematic for me.

The author did a great job portraying people’s flaws and making the characters jump off the page. The pacing was terrific and the story was good. I'd recommend it. I’m just not sure how I feel about it.

Amazon

Here’s the blurb:

Suddenly bereaved, Molly White realises that she has never really known her feisty husband Jake when random boxes begin to appear through the post, each one containing a tantalising clue to the secrets of Jake and Molly’s past. Someone who knows them both well, for reasons of their own, has planned a trail of discovery. The clues seem to be designed to change Molly’s life completely, leading her around Britain and then onwards to rural France and deepest Bavaria.

Meanwhile, waiting in the wings is Tom, a charismatic artist who runs a gallery in the same town. Strong, independent and wheelchair-bound from the age of fifteen, he leads a solitary life and has no idea how devastatingly attractive he is to women. When Tom meets curvy, beautiful and funny Molly, he knows that she is his dream woman, but she seems way out of his orbit until the boxes start to weave their spell and the two of them are thrown right out of their comfort zones.

Little Boxes is a story of love in a variety of guises - mother-love, unrequited passion, infatuation and the shadow-love held in memories that refuse to go away.

3.5 Hearts