Best Laid Plans (Garnet Run, #2)

by Roan Parrish

[Jeff Sexton]

Solid Romance, Animals Again Nearly Steal The Show. This was a solid romance featuring one guy that never really had a chance to find himself, and another that perhaps had too much time to find himself. The connection to the prior book is fairly loose, in the way that many romance series are these days, with Charlie of our primary couple here being introduced in Book 1 (Better Than People) as the brother of one half of that book's couple. We get a touch of his back ground in that book, mostly as it relates to the brother, but here we get even more. And yes, the brother and his boyfriend from Book 1 show up a few times, even to the point of the new guy in this book befriending the boyfriend of Book 1 - which apparently is common when dating siblings. (At least according to what I've observed of my wife and sisters-in-law.) But in addition to the new guy, we are also introduced to a new *cat* in Chapter 1... and this cat damn near steals every scene it is in. Even moreso than the cats and dogs (including Charlie's own cat) of the first book. For me, this book completely worked. There were far less issues reading it than the first book, as while I identified with different elements here, it wasn't to the point of knowing all too well what certain ... sometimes "debilitating"... issues are like. But, yeah, blog tour - I also knew I had to finish this thing soon no matter what, anyway. :D Still, truly at least as strong as Book 1 (I could see a strong debate on which tale is "stronger", and I could probably argue either side of it), and at least for this cat-lover, with its emphasis on cats over dogs, I'll give this one a *slight* edge on the first one. :D Very much recommended.