Balancing Act (Silhouette Special Edition No. 1552)

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER SPOILERS.

LILIAN DARCY

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, 2003.

How acquired: BookCrossing

First line: Brady Buchanan would be here with his little daughter in twenty minutes, maybe less.

(For the Goodreads synopsis, scroll to the bottom of this post.)

My thoughts: What would you do if you discovered that your adopted toddler daughter had a twin sister who had been adopted by someone else? Libby packs up her belongings and moves across the country. A bit grudgingly, but in order for the girls to have a relationship and grow up together they need to live near each other, and Libby is in a better position to move than Brady, who owns a construction company.

"They laughed, and looked at each other, and the kiss they were both thinking about seemed so real that Libby could almost see it in the air."

Of course Libby and Brady are immediately attracted to each other, but they've both been through bad marriages, and Libby and her daughter, Colleen, are only staying with Brady and his daughter, Scarlett, until Libby can find a job and a permanent place to live.

Like a good romance should, there is plenty of conflict between Libby and Scarlett. Neither completely trusts the other, and both agree that they just need to get along for the sake of the girls. But while Libby is the one who uprooted her life and moved, I still felt Brady got the short end of the stick more often. He seemed to try harder, make more of an effort, while Libby was secretive and standoffish. Even towards Scarlett a little bit. I get that she was afraid of getting too attached to Scarlett, in case things went south and she and Brady went their separate ways, but still.

After awhile I got a little tired of Libby keeping things from Brady and trying so hard to maintain her independence. Not that there's anything wrong with independence. But again, Brady was making an effort, and to his credit he would back off when he realized he was pushing her too much. 

By the time Libby needed to have fibroid surgery, she and Brady had slept together. Yet she did not tell him about her upcoming surgery and the more she kept putting off telling him the more irritated I felt towards her. She didn't like her new doctor, so she arranged a trip home to finish packing up her house and decide whether to sell it or rent it out, and scheduled the surgery with her previous doctor to coincide with the trip, asking her mother to also fly out to help with Colleen. I really thought that something was going to go wrong with the surgery and her life would be hanging in the balance and mom would call Brady and the thought of Libby possibly dying would make him realize how much he loved her and he would rush to be at her side. To my surprise that's not what happened, and I was pretty happy at how it was all finally resolved in the end. 

Goodreads synopsis: Four days ago, Libby McGraw had never even heard of Brady Buchanan. But if his claim was true, her carefully constructed life was about to be blown apart. One glance at the silky-haired baby cradled in Brady's arms told Libby more than any blood test could. Her adopted daughter had an identical twin sister!
Libby wanted to believe she was only marrying Brady to keep the girls together, but her heart wasn't buying that malarkey. Not when the feel of Brady's lips on hers told her they might be destined for a more powerful union....