Until There Was You

Written by Kristan Higgins

Narrated by Xe Sands

Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her lovable, if off-center, family and she has a boyfriend-sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking.something like Liam Murphy. When Posey was sixteen, the bad boy of Bellsford, New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again. She should be giving him a wide berth, but it seems fate has other ideas..

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781490696706

Kristan Higgins

Kristan Higgins is the New York Times, Publishers Weekly and USA TODAY bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than twenty languages. She has received dozens of awards and accolades, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The New York Journal of Books and Kirkus. Kristan lives in Connecticut with her heroic firefighter husband, two atypically affectionate children, a neurotic rescue mutt and an occasionally friendly cat.

Reviews for Until There Was You

[tammyhil · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A perfect beach read chosen fairly randomly from limited eBooks.

[karla9brandenburg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kristan Higgins delivers all the feels. This is a Cinderella story of sorts, with a tough girl wrapped in a small package. Prince Charming is delightfully neurotic, which makes his "God's gift" status more palatable. I had trouble buying into the story in parts, but Kristan's writing always keeps you engaged while she draws well rounded characters that are your best friends before its over. Loved it.

[pennykaplan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ugly duckling Posey Osterhagen, owner of an architectural salvage company in NH, discovers that the teen who once broke her heart isn't so bad after all. Funny, and predictable.

[bookaholiccat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4 ½ Stars

Cornelia “Posey” Osterhagen dreamed many times of the day she would cross paths again with her former crush Liam Murphy. She imagined many scenarios were she would be looking her best. She never thought she would see Liam again fifteen years later while wearing her old and unflattering waitress uniform at her parents’ restaurant.

After the death of his wife Emma, Liam Murphy decided to move from California back to Bellsford, New Hampshire where his in-laws live. He thought it would be good for his teenager daughter, Nicole to be close to her grandparents. Liam was known as the bad boy of Bellsford with a reputation to back up his fame; he did many things he wasn’t proud of during his teen years. His life changed when he met Emma, the golden girl of Bellsford. Now as a widower he is trying to be the best father for Nicole and wants to protect her from boys that are the way he was.

Liam remembers Posey as the scrawny daughter of the couple who gave him a job when nobody else wanted to give him an opportunity. He knew she had a crush on him but he never paid attention to her out of respect to her parents. After fifteen years Posey hasn’t changed much, she is still tiny, skinny and a bit awkward in a cute way. What Liam likes most about her is that she isn’t throwing herself at him as half the woman in town are doing. She is also funny and smart and without noticing he is enjoying spending time with her.

Posey has had a crush on Liam Murphy since she was fifteen years old. It doesn’t matter that on the day of her prom he inadvertently broke her heart or that his heart belonged to another one the whole time. Liam is one of those guys hard to forget and Posey’s treacherous hormones and heart are not listening to her head. Now he is back and they are spending time together. He has been clear with her, he doesn’t/can’t have a relationship because of his daughter. Even though Posey doesn’t want to fall for him, she is already halfway in love. Should she try to fight for what she wants or should she just let it go?

Until There Was You was a little bit different from previous books by Mrs. Higgins. In Until There Was You not only do we get Posey’s POV but Liam’s too. I was glad for that, I think with just Posey’s perspective it would have been very difficult to like/accept Liam, but seeing the way he thinks and feels made it easier for me to connect with him. Even though I didn’t agree with all his actions, I kind of understood him.

Posey is a woman with many insecurities. It’s not just that she is tiny , dark and skinny, she is also the adoptive daughter of a German-American couple. Her parents are a very tall and very blond couple, completely opposite of what she looks. This doesn’t mean she hasn’t felt love by them, they have loved her from day one, sometimes they love and care for her too much. Her mother is an overprotective mother who doesn’t want anything bad happening to her, to the point of hilarity. To add to Posey’s insecurities her perfect model-look cousin and famous TV chef, Gretchen, has come to live and help Posey’s parents with their restaurant.
What I liked about Posey was that she felt real, she is a woman with insecurities but at the same time she is strong and sassy. I liked her uniqueness and even though sometimes I wanted her to value herself more I understood her behavior as the result of many years of feeling and seeing herself as the ugly ducky of the family and town.

On the beginning Liam was a bit hard to liked, he felt a bit pompous but after knowing him more I started to like him. He was really fun to read, especially his issues with his daughter and boys. He was once the bad boy that slept around with half the girls in the school, now he doesn’t want his girl to be one of those girls. Sometimes his overprotectiveness was a bit over the top, making his character feel a bit exaggerated. At the end it was clear his actions towards Nicole and Posey were based on good intentions making them forgivable.

What I liked the most about Until There Was You were the secondary characters, especially Posey’s brother in law and best friend Jon. Jon is the partner of Posey’s brother Henry who is also adopted. I loved how Jon was there all the time for Posey and was always truthful to her. He also brought the laughs in the story. I also liked Henry but his obsession for amputations was a bit too much (he’s an orthopedist). I liked how their relationship was portrait as an stable and happy one.
Posey’s friend Katie was also fun, but her relationship with her son was not a normal one. She is a good mother and all that but in my opinion she crossed the mother/son line more than once.
I liked a lot Liam’s daughter Nicole, she is a teenager who has suffered the loss of her mother but knows she has too continue living and even though her father was crazy with his overprotectiveness she knew how to handle him and understood and accepted his behavior for what it was, him worrying for her well-being.

Until There Was You was Mrs. Higgins at her best, great characters, spotless writing, humor with a social context and a nice and fulfilling HEA. If you are a fan of her books I’m sure you are going to love this one and if you haven’t read anything by Mrs. Higgins Until There Was You is a great book for you to get to know her work.

[frostyprincess-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I prefer Kristan's first person POV over this book. Usually her books are lol funny, but not this time.

[nte-7 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I generally like Kristan Higgans - I think she's got a good sense of humor, and she writes contemporaries in a style I would call "optimistic realism" ~ real enough not to be sugary sweet, but with the happily every after vibe that romances require. That said, Until There Was You was just ok for me: I like a bad boy turned good father as much as the next person, but there was something about Liam & Posey that just didn't fit for me. I guess a lot of that had to do with other aspects of Posey's personality - her doormat-ness, if you will - that bothered me so badly that I wasn't completely on board with her being mature enough for a relationship. (Although there were a lot of other parts of her personality that I appreciated, so she wasn't a total wash out.)

But there were a lot of things about Liam to appreciate - the portrayal of his panic attacks, for example. I thought that storyline was generally well handled - it edged a little into uncomfortable areas : The quick wrap up of an epilogue doesn't leave much room for long discussions, but ending things with "his obsession... dwindled. Just enough for Posey to mock him about his handwashing" flirts into both love is a magical cure! and mental illness is quirky and twee! territories, but I'm going to be generous because she handled it so well in the rest of the book, and say that the author just missed those danger zones.

[lrobe190 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her lovable, if off-center, family and she has a boyfriend--sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking...something like Liam Murphy. When Posey was sixteen, the bad boy of Bellsford, New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again. She should be giving him a wide berth, but it seems fate has other ideas."--from cover, p. [4]This was a very entertaining, romantic book. Kristan Higgins is one of my favorite authors and rarely disappoints.

[mlleehreen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

UNTIL THERE WAS YOU is a great novel. Stupendous, in fact. Kristan Higgins has a gift for infusing her books with a cocktail of emotions that really feels like life in a bottle. The way love can be both glorious and painful. How family can be our greatest comfort but, at times, inflict the deepest wounds. There’s so much humor, and right after Higgins writes a scene that nearly breaks your heart, she’ll add another that makes you laugh.

However, as a romance novel? UNTIL THERE WAS YOU falls short. The heroine, Posey, was a scrawny, unpopular teenager but she’s grown into a pretty cool woman who runs an architectural salvage company and has a great circle of friends. But because she lives in this small New England town where everyone knows everyone, she can’t quite outgrow her teenage self. She still expects to be belittled and ignored by most everyone, and shrugs off a lot of little barbs and small cruelties.

Back when the hero, Liam, was the local high school bad boy Posey had a huge crush on him. But he fell in love with a gorgeous, popular girl, knocked her up, and they moved away and got married. Fifteen years later, his wife has died of leukemia and he’s come home so his fifteen year old daughter can be closer to her grandparents. He opens up a custom motorcycle shop and he’s still the hotter than an industrial grade stovetop. Posey is still halfway in love with him. Liam barely knows Posey exists.

Their romance builds very, very slowly. Twenty percent of the way through the book, Liam and Posey have only had a couple of chance encounters. They don’t form a real connection until more than halfway through the book, and even then most of the good times happen off-screen. What we see on the page are the bad moments, when Liam insists that he only wants a no-strings fling and Posey says, “Sure, of course, no problem,” while inside she’s hoping that maybe, eventually, if she’s patient Liam will want something more.

We know that Liam is a stand-up, solid guy once’s he’s committed to a woman, thanks to the flashbacks from his marriage and his devotion to his daughter. But the glowing, soul-deep devotion that Liam had for his dead wife only made it harder for me to stomach the careless way he treated Posey. He uses her, and he knows it. I guess the prize at the end – when he realizes that he really does love Posey – is worth it, but I spent most of the book boiling with resentment.

But look. At the end of the day Higgins had me glued to the page, and she had me feeling every twist and turn in Liam and Posey’s relationship. Totally along for the ride. Like I said at the beginning, UNTIL THERE WAS YOU is a good novel. Maybe it’s not a romance novel, or maybe it’s just not the kind of romance I really enjoy sinking into. The fact remains that I’m dead certain I’ll keep coming back for more and reading books by Higgins. Which makes me feel a little like Posey, which is just wrong.

[ellenavondale · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have a love/total disinterest relationship with Kristan Higgins' books. I have read all but "My One and Only," even though I own two copies of it. I love it when she gets it right, in my view; I am totally disinterested when the hero appears to be a jerk with little self-knowledge, let alone knowledge of those around him, including and especially a woman that has somehow, some way seemed to have loved him her whole life.

I generally like Ms. Higgins' heroines. They all have body issues, but the body issues change from book to book. The body issue in this book, "Until There was You," is that poor Posey just can't gain weight or boobs. This isn't just a poor, pitiful me, I can't gain weight throwaway, it does become a plot point and I have to say it worked for me, even though I can't really identify with no boobs and inability to gain weight.

Anyway, back to the story. One of the things I have had issues with in Ms. Higgins' books is that while the heroine does seem to think a lot, interact a lot, react a lot, cogitate on the hero and their (seemingly impossible) HEA a lot, the hero seems to not be aware he is even in the book until the last couple of chapters when all of a sudden, much to his surprise, maybe even discomfort, he finds himself in love and committed to being committed. I can see where this would be disconcerting for the hero because I swear, in some of the books, he doesn't even know the heroine until he realizes he is in lurve.

This book, he is front, he is center, he is flawed, he is wonderful, he shows he is able to commit and you can see the evolution of his thoughts, so totally unlike other heroes in Ms. Higgins' novels. And while those sounds a little new agey and a bit uncomfortable, it really wasn't as awful as that sounds. He has lost his first wife (to death, not just at the mall one day); he is raising a teenage daughter alone (and she is refreshingly normal, not perfect, not too-smart-ass-for-words, just seems normal); and he is running a small business. I liked him, I really liked him.

But there were a couple of brief forays into the previous plot issues of previous books (breaking so many rules of reviews here, huh, bringing up other books), where he dumps her, she begs and cries and tells him she has always and will always love him; and then he must do what he thinks is right, the only right, and he leaves her behind only to come to his senses/see other choices/decides he must live for himself, not just those who were in his world before the heroine.

As always, Ms. Higgins' gives us a quirky little town inhabited by quirky little secondary characters. These quirksters for the most part are loveable, goofy, warm and totally impossible to imagine actually being "real," but that doesn't make it less fun. One thing I do like about Ms. Higgins' books is that kids are just kids. They aren't know-it-alls, they aren't plot devices (well, for the most part) and they don't make you want to claw your eyes out because they are just so cute/precocious/perfect/evil/wise-beyond-their-years. Yes, they have issues; but they also have adults who can take care of them and respect them for themselves (yes, I know they are fictional characters).

I liked it. I liked it the most of any of Ms. Higgins' books I have read. I look forward to the next one to see if this pattern of actually getting the hero involved before he is walking down the aisle (figuratively, if not literally) continues. I may even go back and read that one I missed to see if that is the start of the trend.

[kaetrin_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5-3.75 stars, so I'm rounding up.Why I read it: I got an ARC from NetGalley and, with the exception of her last book, My One and Only, I'm a fan of Kristan Higgins.What it's about: (from Goodreads) Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her lovable, if off-center, family and she has a boyfriend—sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking…something like Liam Murphy.When Posey was sixteen, the bad boy of Bellsford, New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again. She should be giving him a wide berth, but it seems fate has other ideas….What worked for me: This is the first book Kristan Higgins has written in the third person and for the first time ever, we get a fair portion of the book in hero's POV. I can't tell you how much I have wanted this in her books. I loved it. I can't stress this enough. Loved. It. She writes such good heroes it has always been my complaint that there wasn't enough of them. (Except for the last book where I didn't care for the hero much).What didn't: As much as I loved the foray into third person and the hero's POV, there were things that didn't work so well for me in this book. In the middle of the romance, I was told not shown and I hadn't had enough to completely believe that love had developed. It was the literary equivalent of the musical montage in the middle of a romcom. I needed a bit more showing.The story about Liam's in laws was resolved too quickly and easily and the bit about Liam's OCD never reallly went anywhere.I'm not sure that I bought that (Posey's brother) Henry and (his partner) Jon were happy and would remain that way because Henry seemed so distant and Jon was so... not - I wondered if they would make it. How (Posey's cousin) Gretchen got over her 'problem' - assuming she actually did - was never canvassed. Considering the business arrangement at the end, I'd have thought it needed to be mentioned.What else: As usual there were some really funny bits which made me laugh (and occasionally, snort), especially with Liam being the big bad dad with daughter Nicole's would-be boyfriend Tanner. Did I mentioned I loved having Liam's POV? I did? Well, it's worth repeating.I also liked that Emma, the wife who died was neither deified nor demonized. Hooray.As for Posey, there were times she was just a bit too desperate and even though it was probably totally authentic, it still made me cringe. Also, she was way more forgiving of Gretchen than I would have been.Overall, Posey was almost too nice. She didn't really grow or change through the story and she was just about everyone's favorite person, except for Gretchen and even then, they 'kissed and made up' by the end. It was just a little too saccharine.I would also have liked some of how Liam got to his big declaration at the end - I felt that was missing. His experience with his first wife was that she withdrew from him and that he felt he was never good enough. What made him think that wouldn't happen with Posey? I mean, I don't think Posey would pull away, but what made Liam so sure? That part was missing for me. It sounds like I'm really picking but I'm only doing it because I was so invested in the characters. It's because I liked Liam so much that I want to know more.In the end, I enjoyed this book. Much more than the previous one but not quite as much as the one before that. I wanted to like it even more - I want to encourage Ms. Higgins to write the hero's POV because, boy howdy that was the best part of the book. Please please please Ms. Higgins, continue to write and continue to show us more of the hero.

[beckymmoe_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely love Kristan Higgins's books and couldn't wait to read her latest, Until There Was You. It took a little bit longer than usual for me to get into the rhythm of this one (a few early scenes seemed a little bit forced, but were soon forgotten in the Higgins novel magic)--but once it really got going I loved it just as much as her previous books. The male point of view used here is different--Kristan usually just gives us the heroine's perspective--but in the end I think it worked well. I'm not sure how she could have really let us see into Liam's psyche otherwise, and it was definitely worth it to know directly from him why he did the things he did both during the events of the novel and in the past. The quirky cast of characters we've come to expect from Higgins is here, and the token pet--this time a Great Dane with a few fickle, ungrateful cats thrown in for good measure--is there too. Once again we have a hero and heroine who seem amazingly real. They make stupid choices. They do dumb things. They have pasts they want to forget but sometimes can't. You cringe when they say something they're going to immediately regret, and you feel their slights and snubs as if they'd happened to you. Kristan makes you want to know them both and has you rooting for them to succeed even while you want to smack them upside the head for being so dense...or hug them when they've had a bad day. Honestly, I don't know how she does it over and over again, but I'm glad she does. Once more she wraps it all up with an amazing ending--it practically had me standing and cheering for both Posey and Liam. Write faster, Kristan, please! I need more!

[stephxsu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Posey Osterhagen has a comfortable life with a thriving salvage company, occasionally helping out at her family’s local German restaurant…but the return of Liam Murphy sends her back to her teenaged self. The classic bad boy, Liam took their small New Hampshire town by storm, and Posey was obsessed with him—until he unknowingly broke her heart. Posey has tried to move on since then, but Liam’s reappearance—still working with motorcycles but now a widower with a teenaged daughter—awakens old feelings and makes her wonder if she ever really got over him after all.Think you’ve read all there is to be written about bad boys? Like all of Kristan Higgins’ contemporary romance novels, UNTIL THERE WAS YOU takes a potentially clichéd idea and spins it into an absolutely adorable, quirky, and swoon-worthy love story. I’m not sure if Higgins has written other books in third-person before, and at first the change from the beloved first-person POV was jarring for me, but I quickly appreciated the best part about third-person in this story: that we get to go inside Liam’s head and see what he’s thinking, understand how his past influenced his present in a way that we wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. This, I think, puts Liam a cut above other bad-boy love interests: he becomes less of an enigmatic, unapproachable, mythical bad-boy figure and more of a multidimensional man. It doesn’t hurt that he’s an overprotective father to his enviable teenaged daughter—there’s nothing like paternal characteristics that ups the desirable factor for a love interest in a romance novel, eh?Posey is a pretty typical Higgins protagonist, with a quirky family, fairly independent means, and a cringe-inducing weakness around men. But it’s Liam, and the development of his character, that really carry UNTIL THERE WAS YOU for me. If you’re a Higgins fan, then UNTIL THERE WAS YOU will not disappoint. If you haven’t read any of Higgins contemporary romances yet, what are you waiting for?!

[mesasagacityquest · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I adore Kristina Higgins! She is one of my favorite adult authors. I was so psyched to read this book and when I finally did, it didn’t disappoint at all. I love her writing style and I love her story line include important topics like family, friendship and life struggles—so it is not just romance.Until There Was You is about Posey meeting the boy (Liam) who broke her heart at their prom night. Now that Liam moved back to town with his daughter, Nicole, Posey know she shouldn’t get close to him or his daughter but she doesn’t seem to do that. I liked both Posey and Liam; Posey was caring enough to give Liam a second chance. But I felt for Liam as well because he carried a lot of weight on his shoulder. His mother-in law and father in-law threatened to take away Nicole, and he doesn’t want to date or fall in love thinking it would make Nicole unhappy/uncomfortable.This book is written in a third person point of view and I really like that because it helps me see Liam’s and Posey’s point of view exclusively. Until There Was You is a wonderful book and it is a book everyone should check out. I not only recommend you to read this book, but I also recommend you check out Kristina Higgins other books as well. They all are a must reads, personally.

[showmegirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Until There Was Youby Kristan HigginsOctober 25, 2011Harlequin BooksRATING: 3.5 StarsI laughed, I loved it, and then I kind of hated it. Can you tell how torn I am with this review?Here is why this book deserves 5 stars:Cordelia "Posey" Osterhagen is a sweet and quirky girl. She is nursing a broken heart throughout the book for a number of reasons including getting it squashed by her teenage crush almost fifteen years before. Now that he is back in town, she is forced to confront those feelings again while realizing that she still has the hots for him. Posey has a big heart and a great sense of humor. Never whiny or needy, her character is easy to love.Liam DeClan Murphy. Mr. Bad Boy Hottipants. Kristan Higgins did a fabulous job bringing his character to life both through description (yum) and by giving him his own POV narrative throughout the story. I appreciate that we get to hear from the hero in this story because it helps to establish his sense of background and place. Liam is an overprotective father who loves his daughter and tries his hardest to keep her from getting mixed in with the wrong crowd.The supporting characters, Posey's parents, Henry and John, Brianna and Gretchen add enough humor to tie the story together. And of course, I am a sucker for a HEA.However...Here is why I cannot give it 5 stars:The romantic relationship between Posey and Liam just did not work for me. Throughout the book Liam was constantly giving Posey the brush off either through his actions or his words and it felt a bit like what he did to her in the past. I could not understand why she she put up with it. I understood the need Liam felt to make sure that his daughter came first, but it appeared as though he was always using Posey only when it was convenient for him. It made it hard to believe that he would all of a sudden come to the conclusion that he loved her after the way he acted and reacted to her.There was also Liam's unresolved feelings toward his deceased wife, Emma, that carried right thru the end of the book. I would have had more understanding with it, had Higgins chose to write their marriage in a different light. As it were, they did not sound all that happy together. It was confusing to me that he would still harbor such deep feelings towards her during one part of the book and then be angry at her for dying in the next. Maybe that was to show grieving on Liam's part perhaps, but it made his character seem selfish. Liam's anxiety problems were an interesting addition (though not really explained) but did not seem to mesh well with the 'tough guy' persona that was portrayed.Then we get to Gretchen. Really? What a beotch. Why Posey chose not to stand up for herself with this woman is beyond me. Gretchen was snotty, rude and needed a swift kick in her behind yet Posey treated her as though she were not. Gretchen needed to be part of this story to help support Posey in her role, I just wished she could have been a little more tolerable. I also got tired of reading (after about the tenth time) about Gretchen's abundant chest. Yeah, I got it after the first mental picture, didn't need to be reminded over and over. Kind of similar to the whole, "Holy Bieber!" thing. Funny at first, annoying by the end.So...With that said, this book is typical romance genre. No real big surprises, just a light hearted read that hummed along fairly steadily. Overall, I am happy that I had the opportunity to read this book and look forward to more by this author in the future.Recommended

[ethel55_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Posey (Cordelia) Osterhagen has always stuck out as the tiny, dark haired adoptive daughter of the very blond, Germanic Osterhagen clan. The family business is a local German restaurant, but Posey works in her own architectural salvage firm, which does seem pretty interesting, although not a huge focus in the book. Bad boy Liam Murphy returns to town, opening a motorcycle shop. He is widowed, with a teenage daughter in tow. Of course, he was Posey's former unrequited love from high school! This was a fun romantic comedy and the first novel by Higgins that I have read. I really liked the way Liam related to his daughter, and how he was seeing thing from the other side, as the over protective parent!

[cyncie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another winner from Kristan Higgins, laugh out loud funny, with bad boy turned good main character, and a female lead character who is quirky and preciously imperfect. I loved the story and the development of characters.

[rhonda1111 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review: Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins 4 STARSBoy I wish the doctors told me to eat ice cream daily and gain weight. Posey Osterhagen was told that in high school. Posey was adopted and was 5.2, dark hair and skinny underweight. Both parents were tall and heavey set blond German. Posey had her own business architectural salvaging and lived in an old church. She was single had great friends. loving family. In high school had crush on bad boy Liam.Liam and his 15 year old daughter Nicole just moved back to town so she could be closer to her grandparents. Emma had died of cancer 2 years ago.Liam was opening a motorcycle custom orders. When Nicole was with her grandparents Posey & Liam started dating in secret.It was a good romance book. Posey really thought she new things from back in high school but she only new half the story. I like that Posey had a different career. Most of all loved how all the characters related to each other. Posy had strong friendships in her life. I want to read more books from Kristan. I was given this ebook to read in exchange for honest review from Netgalley.

[jolzyn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Reading this book remind me about my first love but unlike my story, Cordelia's fairytale finally comes true. Cordelia fell in love with Liam when she first saw him at the school hall but her dream to have a life with him was buried when she overheard him telling her prom date that she was just a bag of bones. Fast forward to today, fifiteen years later, Liam is back in town with his daughter in tow. Her love for him rekindle there and then. And unlike before, they were an item and just as soon as Cordelia started to dream a life with him, Liam ended their relationship.I like Cordelia's character very much. She is down to earth and most importantly, she is who she is. She was not easily being swayed and she will not take offend when others think of her as man rather than a women just because of the way she dressed and her nature of job; a junkyard owner.Despite his past, Liam is a responsible guy, a good husband and father, This is undeniably true from the beginning of the story to the end which i find it rather endearing. ;) I like the way he talked to his daughter's boyfriend; frank yet clear the message or rather the threat that he issued to him when he wanted to take his daugher out. It is something different from the other story that i read with the similar character which i find it rather interesting.

[allureofbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The second I saw Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins listed on NetGalley, I downloaded and read it. Seriously: right that second. If you know me, you know Kristan Higgins is on my short list of absolute favorite authors. She has a way of creating characters that matter. Unfortunately – this one does not stand out to me as one of her better stories.Posey owns an architectural salvaging company (say what? I didn’t know that existed – really cool job!), has a kinda sorta boyfriend (also known as The Jerk-Off Booty Call) and a varied but close-knit family. Something is missing though, and when Liam Murphy (high school crush and heartbreaker) moves back to town she gets a little worried that something might be him.So – the whole bad boy from high school turned HEA love story plot line is usually enjoyable but kinda overdone. One really great addition in this story is the fact that Liam has a teenage daughter (he is a widower) and their relationship is fantastic – realistic and loving. I really enjoyed watching them interact with each other. It also added a cautiousness that Liam probably wouldn’t have otherwise had that lended itself well to his growing relationship with Posey. Things moved at a nice pace from tolerance to friendship to more. However – the chemistry was seriously lacking for me. Even though I liked the characters, I couldn’t connect with them. Definitely not what I’ve come to expect from people created by Kristan.Also, Posey was adopted. This continues to be a factor (at least in her mind) throughout her life. What the what? I have to confess that this kinda thing offends me to a certain degree. I’m adopted and I basically never think about it. Ever. My family is my family. Period. Posey, however, feels like certain members of her family continually see her as an outsider or interloper or whatever. I mean, come on. There are people in my extended family I’d prefer not to have to rub elbows with during the holidays but I have never - NEVER – been made to feel by anyone that I wasn’t a part of the family. The fact that Posey can claim a closeness with hers and still feel on some level an outcast strikes me as ridiculous. Anyway, end soapbox.So, while I did enjoy reading the book, it failed to live up to most of Kristan Higgins’ previous books. So, while I still think it is worth reading, it won’t be a book I recommend too often since there are so many other Higgins books to push on people instead! (I’m looking at you Just One of the Guys and All I Ever Wanted.)