No Going Back

If there is one place a person can go to in order to lay low, it’s New Hampshire. Ari Milbanke hopes to use just that, moving to a sleepy town called Leith’s Common, in order to give her daughters a normal, quiet life as far away from their father and the madness that is Hollywood.  Then she discovers a ghost and meets Sam Beauchamp and a quiet life no longer seems like an option. Sam and Ari will have to face ghosts, her past and their budding love in just a few turbulent months…

“No Going Back” is a wonderfully detailed account of the road to love, with all the little touches, conversations and smiles that make the journey so spectacular and fun. Sam is an amateur firefighter, owns a farm with horses, is a talented musician, and, oh, he’s wonderful with children and incredibly handsome too. In other words: he’s too perfect to be a believable. In the instances when he’s not perfect, his behavior is completely out of character, which at the ending leaves an entire thread unresolved. Ari and her daughters were much more colorful and tangible. With the relationship building so extensively, there were times when the pace was rather slow, but it can be forgiven because of the sheer warmth of the family and town Hebert brought to life. Delightfully,  the ghost mystery gave this story the spice it needed, making it just the right book to put a smile on a reader’s face on a breezy summer day… 

Mimi Smith