SHEILA ROBERTS
My thoughts: Initially I had a little trouble getting into this one. While Livi seems like a good person with a generous heart, which she was, I was really turned off by her reaction to Guy when he insisted - after the CSR of his company had already told Livi more than once - that his company would not be able to donate to Livi's nonprofit this year. Rather than be gracious and appreciating the large donations his company had made in the past, she acted like her nonprofit was entitled to his donation and she was really pushy and rude to him. Which makes him not revealing his true identity to her when they meet by chance perfectly understandable.
I liked Guy much more than I did Livi. And admittedly we learn that Guy's reason for choosing to support another organization this year was not altogether altruistic, but that's neither here nor there. His company, his decision. And as much as I was already liking Guy, I loved seeing his character growth throughout the book. Didn't see as much from her.
But once I got past that blip in her character, I became very invested in the story, though again, I felt Livi overreacted when she finally learned that "Joe" was actually Guy.
Speaking of character, the author did a wonderful job with the characterization. There were several supporting characters, and of course they were not nearly as fleshed out as Livi and Guy, although Morris, who's been in love with Livi forever and has a lot of hostility towards "Joe", almost was until he tilted into caricature territory. But since this is Livi and Guy's story it didn't bother me. I've read four other books by this author, and I think this one is the best as far as how well written it is. Despite my initial misgivings about Livi, five stars.
