My 1 & Only Original/E

by Kristan Higgins

[Stephanie]

Originally posted at Once Upon a Chapter

Harper is a divorce attorney on the small Northeast island of Martha's Vineyard….which means that anyone who's been on the other team hates her on site. She's good at what she does and she always ensures that her clients get what is due them. Harper is in control of her life. She has a beautiful home just off the water, a sexy beast of a boyfriend and a wonderful dog named Coco. There's only one problem. Harper is hitting her mid-thirties and wants to move on with her life. She's ready for a husband and some little ones. Harper has moved past her first pass on the marriage scene over a decade ago. How does she convince her boyfriend Dennis that it's time to move on?

During her slightly disastrous marriage proposal, Harper's baby sister Willa calls to tell her that she's getting married…again….in two weeks…in Montanta. As if this wasn't enough to make Harper cringe, she's going to have to face down her ex-husband after so many years. Two weeks is not enough time to prepare herself for this! Nick has also seemed to have moved on after their short lived marriage. Neither can deny the instant attraction that hums through them both. Neither wants to go down that road again.

Circumstances leave Harper stranded in Montana and her only way to get home is to catch a ride with Nick. Nick has decided to take a cross country trip on the way home to New York and has offered to take Harper to an airport in South Dakota on the way home. Can they both avoid talking about their shared past and the present chemistry?

My One and Only was my first Kristan Higgins books and it WILL not be my last. I can't read to dig into this author's back list! Harper was such a great heroine! Not only was she a snarky and hilarious person but she knew what she wanted and how to go about getting it. Harper was far from perfect and you could tell that she had a lot of room for improvement. Life has taught Harper a lot of lessons and it shows. She's a realist but not too cynical. I like to see character growth and Harper fit the bill. From page one to the end of the book we watch as she comes to terms with some pretty heavy personal issues. Lessons are learned and mistakes are rectified.

This is going to sound horrible and really conflict with my 4 star review but Nick didn't leave much of an impression on me. He's great, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I resonated more with Harper. My One and Only is told from Harper's first person point of view. Plus I have abandonment issues which is very strange because I've never been abandoned but the thought terrifies me nonetheless. I think that for the most part she overshadowed Nick because of my personal feelings. Nick was supportive but also had demands. He really frustrated me through the first half of the novel but he grew on me. He is sweet, chivalric, and induces several swoon worthy moments but, my God, he can be a stubborn ass! He'd almost have to be to partner well with Harper.

The secondary characters rocked in this book! Now because the story is first person from Harper's perspective I only knew what Harper wanted to share about the characters when she wanted to share it. Her father and BeverLee irritated me to no end. Until Higgins punched me in the heart at the end of the book (more on that below!). Coco, Harper's dog, is a character all her own and My One and Only wouldn't have been the same without her. Silly girl tried to hypnotize everyone into being some form of an adoring slave. It probably wouldn't have taken hypnotism though.

The story really flowed beautifully. As the reader, I learned about anything of importance when I needed to. I didn't have a bunch of history thrown at me all at once. I learned about it when during key turning points and in full detail. It held my interest because I didn't know about Nick and Harper's past. I didn't know what had happened to Harper's mother. I knew Harper knew but she was keeping it from me and that at some point it would have to come out! For the most part, My One and Only is kept light and snarky but funny. Nick and Harper conduct some excellent dialogue and the characters are engaging. What made this book something a little bit above a three start read for me was the ending. Oh such a sweet ending. So many things about it were wonderful. It left me feeling a little euphoric after reading it. A great book can do that to you. I choked up and a few tears fell but when I turned the last page I knew that the characters that I had come to care about were going to be okay. If you're a contemporary romance reader you must read My One and Only by Kristan Higgins.