YOURS, UNEXPECTEDLY – Susan Fox
Wild Ride to Love , Book 4
Brava
ISBN: 978-0-7582-5931-8
December 2011
Contemporary Romance

Vancouver, BC, Canada and aboard a Cruise Ship off the Mexican Coast – Present Day

On the brink of marrying her childhood sweetheart, Merilee Fallon suddenly has cold feet. She and Matt Townsend had known each other since they were children and sort of just fell into love and wanting to get married. With her three older sisters recently finding love in the most unexpected of ways, Merilee feels like her life is stagnant. She goes to Matt and lets him know of her insecurities, and instead of fighting for her, he agrees to break up. But with the wedding being called off at the last minute, the honeymoon cruise to Mexico will be unused, so Merilee decides to go alone. And it seems Matt has the same idea. Suddenly, this formerly engaged couple is now sharing a cabin on the Diamond Star .

Merilee's decision to call off the wedding has deeply hurt Matt. He feels he doesn't really know her now despite the years they have been together, even though they were pretty much joined at the hip. When she makes it clear she plans to act single on the cruise, well, two can play at that game. Yet the more Merilee and Matt get into the swim of single life, the more they end up coming back to each other. Can they repair the damage done to their relationship and find their way back to loving each other?

After realizing her life is in a rut, Merilee feels as if she is spiraling out of control. Was calling off the wedding the right thing to do? Why did Matt just go along with her decision and not fight for her? Did Matt ever really love her? Can she find a love as exciting as her sisters? Those are some of the questions Merilee is facing in YOURS, UNEXPECTEDLY. One by one Merilee watched her sisters come home and talk about the exciting new men in their lives. Merilee has always had reliable Matt, and that no longer appeals to her. Forced to share a cabin on the Diamond Star with Matt, she starts making some changes in her life. But for every change that she does, Matt also changes. Suddenly her reliable boyfriend is unexpectedly intriguing.

Matt's anger transcends to their forced sharing, yet like Merilee, he realizes he needs to put the past behind him and get on with his life. A new haircut and new clothes has him trying out new things, like scuba diving. Yet as much as things change for him, he still finds himself attracted to Merilee. While their sex life was always okay, now he sees her in a new light, and that includes hot, sweaty sex in ways he'd been afraid to approach Merilee with. But even with the changes, things appear the same between them. Is this a temporary fix, or can they find their happily-ever-after once more?

YOURS, UNEXPECTEDLY is a wonderful tale of rediscovering and redefining love in a heartwarming and sizzling way. Readers will feel Merilee's insecurities and Matt's heartbreak. They've known each other forever, yet never explored their relationship outside the boundaries. Close quarters on a cruise provides the perfect outlet for making them look at their lives and each other in a new way. Told from Merilee's first person point of view and Matt's third person, readers get to explore inside their heads and sympathize with both. I think that is what makes YOURS, UNEXPECTEDLY special—neither Matt nor Merilee was wrong in their initial actions, yet both were at fault in letting themselves drift along.

Rekindled love and sex on the high seas is a fresh tale of romance and emotion I highly recommend. You can't go wrong picking up a Susan Fox book, and you certainly will be the winner if you pick up YOURS, UNEXPECTEDLY.

Holly Tibbs