The Daughter He Never Knew

Title: The Daughter He Never Knew
Author: Linda Barrett
Read: June 6, 2014

Summary: "Tell Lila not to wait..."

Five simple words -- scribbled on an impersonal Christmas card to his parents -- changed Lila Sullivan's life forever. Jason Parker, the boy she'd loved, was never coming back to her...or to the daughter he'd never seen. He'd fled Pilgrim Cove five years before, taking all his hurt and guilt with him. Only his promise to return had kept Lila going.

Now four more years have passed, and Lila is about to marry someone else. Eight-year-old Katie is thrilled to be getting a dad and a sister. A real family of her own.

Then Jason sends a new message. This time it's personal. He's coming home. goodreads

Review: I don't know if you picked up this gem from the picture above, but prepare yourself, this is a SUPERROMANCE! What?!?!?! I didn't even know such a thing existed! But rest assured, it does and it seems Barrett is the author of some of them. I'm not sure how this ended up on my TBR (along with most of the books) but I knew nothing about it going in. I quickly found that Pilgrim Cove is most likely the place of multiple SUPERROMANCE stories that are all probably just as short and sweet as this one. When we are introduced to this lovely sea side town, we meet lots of other characters who seem to have a back story but it is not exactly the focus for the reader. I assume this is because each of these characters/couples has their own SUPERROMANCE that we are supposed to have already read. I didn't. My bad.

That being said, I really enjoyed this little love story. The main characters and their history were well developed and I enjoyed getting to know them better. I think Jason Parker is one of the best men out there, even though he lost himself for a decade. Now he's got his stuff back together and he is coming home to make amends. I give this book credit because it made me cry twice which I wasn't expecting and I found myself connecting with the characters more than I thought I would. I loved the younger generation in this book as well as the older one. Barrett does a good job of giving everyone a real personality and not just making the younger ones "kids" and the older ones "old guys."

While the writing is not phenomenal, and the story is not especially deep or symbolic, I really enjoyed immersing myself in this town with these characters. You can get a lower rating from me if your deep, meaningful novel bores me but it's not hard to get a high rating if I thoroughly enjoy the book (even if it's nothing to write home about.) Sometimes, I just need to check out of reality and enjoy what I'm reading because it's easy. If you are looking for a short, sweet beach read, I don't think you can go astray with any of the books set in Pilgrim Cove.