Susan Mallery brings her readers back to her small town of Fool’s Gold, California where love is almost never perfect. Readers will be charmed and delighted to be reacquainted with old friends and two town sweethearts resurrecting that old love.

I’m always partial to hidden children themes in my romance stories. I can understand and relate because such incidents do happen in real life but for the most part, there is a part of me that wonders what would make a woman not share that she is having a child with a man. In Almost Perfect by Susan Mallery, Liz Sutton, the heroine does make two attempts to tell Ethan Hendrix that he is the father of her son, Tyler.

Liz and Ethan were secret lovers years ago. The people of the town labeled her a whore because of her mother’s promiscuous behavior and associated Liz with it. Only Ethan knew that he was her first for everything. After hearing him deny their affair to all their friends, Liz leaves only to discover she is pregnant. She makes the decision to tell Ethan but he is in bed with another woman. Years later, another attempt is made but Ethan never knew about it because his dead wife had hid the truth from him. Now Liz is back in town after receiving an email from a fourteen year old, claiming to be her niece. Two small girls were abandoned in Fool’s Gold and Liz returns to help them. The only problem is now she has to confront Ethan about the Tyler’s identity.

I really love Susan Mallery’s stories. They are just plain fun and light. Having the pleasure of reading the first story in the series, I was delighted to read this book. I loved Liz. She is a strong character who deals with the town’s criticism way better than I would have. I was proud that she is a big time author showing them what she has accomplished.

Ethan on the other hand, is the most fickle hero that I’ve ever read. The whole Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine he pulls throughout the book was so tiring. There were moments where I wanted someone to take something and smack him upside the head and then there were the moments when he was sweet and nice. I did understand that his family’s name is important in the town, so he did not want to be associated with anything negative, but come on. I definitely could relate to Liz not trusting Ethan because of his inconsistent behavior. Even Denise, Ethan’s mother, is somewhat cold in the beginning but eventually she became a likeable character and realized where her son’s idiotic tendencies came from.

The kids are also a very important element of the book. The email that Melissa sent to Liz in the beginning tore at my heart and I opened up to them immediately, which I can say is hard since, for me sometimes kids can be a distraction in a story. Of course, I was more than happy to read about the rest of the people in the town. Girl’s night is entertaining. Pia and Liz learned to let go of the past (Pia used to torment Liz in high school) and forge friendships. There are brief glimpses of Josh’s outcome with Charity (the H/H from the 1st story) and a very sad departure of another friend.

Overall, I laughed, I got teary-eyed, I cheered all the way to the end. I can’t wait to see what will happen next Fool’s Gold.~ Samantha