Setting: Fool’s Gold, California
POV: 3rd Person
Sensuality: Warm
Violence: N/A
Format: Digital
Source: A digital ARC courtesy of Harlequin via NetGalley
Why I Read It: I enjoyed the previous book in Susan Mallery’s Fool’s Gold series, Almost Perfect
My Grade: C+
Finding Perfect continues a story arc which began in the first book in the series, Chasing Perfect. Pia O’Brian is the event planner for the town of Fool’s Gold. She’s currently mourning the death of her close friend, Crystal, from cancer. Pia is shocked when she learns that Crystal left her an unusual bequest in her will: the three frozen embryos which were to have been Crystal’s children with her husband, Keith, who was killed in Iraq. Pia expected to be left Crystal’s cat, not her babies!
Pia has no idea what she should do. She doesn’t think she’s responsible enough to be anyone’s mother, let alone three children. In the midst of Pia’s crisis, she receives support from an unlikely source: Raoul Moreno, a former professional quarterback and a new resident of Fool’s Gold.
Raoul had a tough childhood and made good thanks to his talent and some timely guidance from his high school football coach and his wife. Raoul came to Fool’s Gold to open a football camp for disadvantaged kids. A veteran of a bad divorce, he has no interest in settling down, but he finds Pia O’Brian impossible to resist. He’s drawn to her by her sense of honour and self-sacrifice. When Pia confides that she’s decided to go through with the IVF, Raoul impulsively offers to be her pregnancy buddy. When Pia becomes pregnant, Raoul upgrades his offer to one of marriage.
Pia is flattered by Raoul’s offer to help her through her pregnancy and be a father to the babies. However, she’s not sure she can settle for a marriage of convenience with Raoul, especially now that she’s fallen in love with him.
The premise of Finding Perfect is a very modern dilemma. I felt bad for Pia that she’d been landed in a difficult situation without prior warning. One aspect of the story I found refreshing was that the author allowed Pia to be angry with Crystal for manipulating her from beyond the grave.
I found Raoul’s marriage proposal a little hard to believe, but I thought they worked well as a couple, so I could overlook that. Raoul’s character was almost too good to be true at times, and there was a subplot involving a neglected foster kid which was too saccharine for my tastes. Unfortunately, the story ends while Pia is still pregnant. This really bothered me as I wanted to know what happened to Raoul and Pia after the babies were born.
Despite my quibbles, Finding Perfect is a quick and entertaining read. Susan Mallery is a great storyteller, and she manages to make her characters come alive. Given the abrupt (for me) ending of the book, I hope she plans to write more stories set in Fool’s Gold so that we find out what happens to Pia, Raoul and the babies.
Other Books in this Series:
Chasing Perfect (2010) by Susan Mallery
Almost Perfect (2010) by Susan Mallery
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I very sadly gave up Susan Mallery after her being an autobuy author for years. She just wrote one too many books in a row that I wanted to throw against the wall because of something one of the characters did. Sounds like she’s keeping it up.
@KristieJ: I’ve really enjoyed some of her books, but not all of them. I was disappointed that Pia and Raoul’s story was sort of left hanging. I’m not usually a fan of epilogues, but I think this book needed one.