Almost Forever

Title: ALMOST FOREVER
Author: Deborah Raney
Publisher: Howard Books
May 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4165-9991-3
Genre: Inspirational/contemporary romance

Bryn Hennesey volunteers at the Grove Street Homeless Shelter, a job that her husband, Adam, hates for her to do. He believes that the homeless are dangerous. Bryn disagrees, but tries to keep her schedule so that her husband doesn’t know when she is working. Adam is a firefighter, and his hours are long, so this is easy to accomplish. But Bryn is at the shelter when a terrible fire burns the shelter to the ground. Five heroic firefighters died at the scene. Adam was one of them. Now, like the rest of the surviving spouses, Bryn most find a way to begin again.

Garrett Edmond’s wife, Molly, was the only female firefighter to perish in the blaze. Garrett struggles with the loss of his love. He hadn’t wanted her to have such a dangerous job; it threatened his manhood and made him the joke of the community, having a wife who worked as a firefighter while he taught school. But he begins to live again when he meets Bryn struggling to walk a dog—which is really walking her. He helps her get the animal under control, teaches her basic dog training tricks, and they spend an enjoyable afternoon together.

But as Bryn and Garrett begin to forge a friendship, Garrett starts demanding answers to what caused the blaze that took the lives of their spouses. Investigators are stumped. But someone knows the answer…

ALMOST FOREVER is a wonderful new book by Deborah Raney. Some of Ms. Raney’s books require tissues handy to get through, but even though there is the tragedy at the beginning of ALMOST FOREVER, I didn’t cry. If you cry easily, maybe you might need to keep the box handy.

Bryn and Garrett are both realistic characters, and the secondary characters are also well developed. I felt I got to know and love some of the characters, like Charlie, a homeless man, and even Molly and Adam, as we saw them through the eyes of their surviving spouses. If you are looking for a good romance about starting over, second chances, and forgiveness, then ALMOST FOREVER will be great book. Discussion questions as well as an excerpt from Forever After, the second book in the Hanover Falls series are included at the end of the book. $14.99. 326 pages.