My One and Only by Kristan Higgins
HQN
Contemporary
ISBN: 978-0-373-77557-6
Reviewed by Vanessa









Harper James is a hardworking, successful divorce attorney who has been married and divorced.  Dating her current beau, Dennis, for the past 2 ½ years, Harper has decided that now is the time to try marriage again.  However, before she can work out the details of her proposal with Dennis she gets a call announcing that her stepsister is about to be married for the third time!  Harper is thrown for a loop when she discovers that the groom to be is the half-brother of her ex-husband!

Nick Lowery is a successful architect with two failed marriages behind him.  He truly loved his first wife, Harper, but life, baggage, misunderstandings, and a lack of communication seemed to have gotten in their way of a happily ever after.  Nick always has a plan or adapts to a situation and comes up with a plan, but he has to be allowed time and space to work out the details.  Yet Harper had left him before he could devise a solution to their troubles.

Harper and Nick try to be adults when they see each other at their siblings’ wedding and Nick would like to have Harper admit fault in their failure of a marriage and then move on . . . together!  Yet cynical Harper doesn’t quite see things his way and determines to carry on with her plans for the future which don’t include true love Nick.  However, her plans do include her soon to be fiancé, Dennis; if she can get him to agree to her list of demands in a future husband and perhaps accepting her proposal when he does agree.  Yet Harper soon discovers that Dennis isn’t who she really wants as she finds herself thrown into an unexpected road trip with her ex-husband due to circumstances beyond their control.

The back blurb of My One and Only sounded so interesting when I read it.  Yet upon receiving the book I noted it was a first person story.  I don’t always like first person stories because I feel like I’m missing the other protagonist’s point of view, everything is filtered through the main character and I can’t always trust them.  But this book was amazing!!

Nick and Harper were intense and passionate and years later they are still the same.  Nick knew what he wanted and went after it.  Even without his point of view, you felt sure that he would always want Harper and if given the opportunity he would try to get back with her.  He is a man with a plan, but he has to feel that it is feasible to achieve his goal.  Harper has to learn to step out in faith and trust that Nick will be there to catch her if she falls.  I so loved that ending scene that I could actually picture it in my head.  My One and Only would make a fabulous romantic comedy!  In fact the whole tone of the book lent itself to the feel of today’s romantic comedies.

Harper’s fears and expectations seemed realistic for someone who had gone through what she did and Nick’s reasoning for being unable to forgive her in the beginning worked as well.  I liked that he was still a forgiving sort of guy and that he was pretty honest.  However, I was actually a little peeved that he didn’t quite get it towards the end and was still trying to get her to fit into his life instead of merging together, but Nick is such an upstanding guy that he did catch on and their happily ever after was truly believable.  I was just sorry to see My One and Only end because I enjoyed the cast of characters and all their interactions and antics.

Every single character in this story was a hoot even the dog was precious too with his own little quirks that just added to the whole ensemble.  I liked the complexities that all the characters brought to their relationships as well.  Harper did come to realize what her hang up was and tried to rectify it.  As a reader you saw right away that Dennis was not her match but that Nick was.  My One and Only keeps you involved and captivated!

My One and Only had it all: passion, love, humor, unconditional love, tears and poignant moments as realizations emerged and were brought to light.  Because it is a first person story we don’t see all of Nick’s hang-ups and growth like we do with Harper, however make no mistake – Nick grows too!  My One and Only showed some real people with real hang-ups learning to navigate life to find their fairy tale ending and just plain taking a gamble to get it.  My One and Only is Joyfully Recommended!