This novella starts out with the heroine Ashlee double checking her lottery ticket, because she’s just won! She won a secondary prize, but it was enough money to get her out of the crappy motel she and her son are living in. The week before, she’d just broken up with her boyfriend Tommy, and with the lottery money, she knew it was time to go home.
But going home is never easy, especially since there’s a reason she left.
Ashlee and Brick were teenagers when Ashlee got pregnant. Brick was so excited to use this pregnancy as an excuse to get out from his controlling parents’ thumb that he didn’t really think beyond rushing home and telling them right away. With Brick’s family being wealthy and Ashlee being from a trailer park, well, you can imagine what they thought. Brick told Ashlee to wait in the car so he could break the news first. When she saw his mother slap him across the face, she ran to the front door to listen in and what she heard made her blood run cold. His parents wanted to get rid of the baby and pay off Ashlee.
Scared and pregnant, and thinking she was alone, she ran.
But when she goes back, she sees an open house, and wondering if this will be her first house, she pulls in. But Brick is inside. He’s renovated the house and is trying to sell it so he can get started on his next project. And Ashlee walks in with his son.
This novella is sweet and easy, yet still incredibly emotional. Brick has missed his son’s entire life, and while he’s only 5, that’s still a lot to miss. But he and Ashlee still love each other, and they fit together seamlessly. The two have to decide whether to hang on to old feelings, or to move on and pick back up where they left off as stronger, smarter individuals.
Putting aside old hurts and learning where they fit in each other’s lives again is usually full of bitterness and betrayal, yet Ms. Edwards writes this story as sweetly as if it the two of them can be adults and look at what they want without the old wounds blinding them. They’ll see that it will take a Whole Lot O’ Love to raise their son together, and that they’ve never lacked in that department.
Bonnie Edwards tends to write really great family romances. This series has all the elements I love in those. It has great family dynamics, well-written side characters, and previous couples yet can stand alone. If you enjoy family saga type series then you won’t want to miss Whole Lot O’ Love!
***courtesy review copy supplied by the author
