NOBODY'S ANGEL – Sarah Hegger
A Willow Park Romance, Book 1
Zebra Books
ISBN: 978-1-4201-3739-2
April 2015
Contemporary Romance

Willow Park, Illinois

Lucy Flint returns to her home town of Willow Park after nine years away. She's not the same wild young woman who ran off with her friend's boyfriend when she was twenty-one. For one thing, she has been sober for three years, thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous and Madeline, her sponsor. She's back after a call from her mother: her father is not well…the father she could never please, mainly because she was born a girl instead of the son he wanted. Lucy's return will not be an easy one. Willow Park is a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business and memories are long.

Lucy will be meeting many people that she hurt. One of them is Richard Hunter, whom she stole from Ashley, her former best friend. Richard later went back to Ashley; they married, but may soon be divorced. Lucy can't help running into him, for Richard now lives in the house next door to her parents and is their family doctor!

As a step in her rehabilitation, Lucy hopes to apologize and make amends to all before she goes back to Seattle.

Did I say Lucy's return would not be easy? That's putting it mildly. For one thing, Richard still has a hold on her heart, but he's very angry with her, as are others. Yet she hopes for forgiveness, including from herself. Is that too much to ask?

NOBODY'S ANGEL is not an easy read. It's very emotional, the characters very lifelike, and the plot suspenseful. The language is rather salty for many of us older readers, and Lucy's not easy to like, though understandable once meeting her family. The most attractive characters are Richard, his mother, and his brother, Josh. Josh's story will be told next fall in NOBODY'S FOOL. There's a peek at it in the back of the book, and another Hunter brother in the wings.

Jane Bowers