COMING TO TERMS

COMING TO TERMS by Jackie Kramer
Hardshell Word Factory – 2000
ISBN: 1582006113
Contemporary Romance

Reviewed by JaToya Love, MyShelf.com
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Jared Rutledge is a man use to getting what he wants. And through a combination of charm, determination and in some cases manipulation he continues to do just that throughout this book. In most cases it was easy to swallow but at times it felt like he got away with way too much. I wanted Kate to lay into him at least once so he’d take a step back and realize that the world didn’t revolve solely around his company, even if he did. And that others could get hurt by his actions. When he used his connection to Kate to meet the town genius, I thought it should have taken him longer to placate her. She made it clear that she realized she’d been used, so why was it so easy for him to turn the tables on her? And while it’s understandable that he pushed the marriage because he needed to get married to retain his company, he never even felt a real twinge of guilt for using her son to gain her cooperation.

Other than this and a few other minor points I enjoyed this book but if anything what did it for me was Kate Lawson and her son, David. She’s a wonderful mother and unlike in many other books where that relationship is down played, the author did a great job of emphasizing what a good mother is. Kate talked to her son and involved him in the decisions in her life and the resulting character was very cool. If anything David was the most fully developed character in the book the only one whose actions never needed to be questioned.

There was definitely romance in this book. But more importantly there was a family and that’s what this book ended up being about. Showing a man who was way to focused on work, to the detriment of all else, that what’s really important are the people in your life and the love that’s shared.