Now That You Mention It. Kristan Higgins

Published: HQN Books
Date: 26th December 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 416
Genre: Mainstream Fiction
Source:Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:
               

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With a tough islander mother who's always been distant and a wild-child sister in jail, unable to raise her daughter—a withdrawn teen as eager to ditch the island as Nora once was—Nora has her work cut out for her if she's going to take what might be her last chance to mend the family.

It is a delicious feeling to open up a book by Kristan Higgins and indeed it was so for this latest book as well. It was funny and heart warming, poignant and at times caught me right in the heart.

This is the story of Nora, before and after. As a young teen on Scupper Island she has much to contend with. She has the heart ache of her Dad walking out on their family and to compensate she over eats which leads to further insults. Her mother is tough but not particularly the warm huggable kind.  Nora is bright though and she has the chance of winning a big scholarship, although she has big competition from an equally intelligent student. But intelligence is not the only thing that counts.

Nora does make it to being a very successful doctor, however there is a Big Bad Event that has caused her a lot of trauma, and there are other aspects of her life that just aren't working out.

When she returns to Scupper Island she has her mother to deal with, her niece Poe who is a sullen 'don't look at me' kind of teen, and her nemesis Luke Fletcher. However Nora is not easily deterred and the story rollicks along as she faces into all the challenges before her. Not least of all is winning over her niece Poe and finding a partner for her mother.  

Of course Nora is accompanied by her beloved dog Boomer and they have a fantastic relationship. However not so with her mother's pet bird Tweety. Oh my how I was horrified and .... yes laughed at the interactions there.

Nora makes significant changes in her life, she meets up again with Sully Fletcher and there just might be sparks there. As well he has a daughter Audrey, someone Nora is able to reach out to.

I loved picking up this book to read any chance I had, I loved the island, the people and scenery on Scupper. Kristan Higgins has satisfied my reading heart again.