Talley, Liz

Talley’s latest (after The Wedding War) could have easily been a whimsical romance novel with some cautionary Hollywood tabloid fodder plot points, but the difficult topics (and possible triggers) of addiction, child abuse, rape, and suicide instead make it a more serious look at two women who need to heal in order to try to make peace with their pasts and move forward with their lives. For fans of women’s fiction with a little romance thrown in to break up the serious plotlines.

While Talley's (All That Charm) latest features an overarching theme of unrequited love, there are some triggers that readers should be aware of, such as a death resulting from a car accident and a detailed date rape. Talley does an excellent job of making her flawed characters vastly more gray than black and white…which creates a story of unrequited lives, redeemed.