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Big Girls Don't Cry    by Brenda Novak Amazon.com order for
Big Girls Don't Cry
by Brenda Novak
Order:  USA  Can
Harlequin, 2005 (2005)
Paperback
* *   Reviewed by Marie Hashima Lofton

This has got to be one of the juiciest Harlequin Superromances I've ever read. Big Girls Don't Cry is the story of two women who discover they are married to the same man. Reenie and Elizabeth both feel happily married. The one thing that makes them discontented is that their husband, Keith O'Connell, spends two weeks of each month working away from home.

It's Elizabeth's brother, Isaac Russell, who notices that something does not add up. While discussing a major car accident on the freeways of Sacramento, where Keith supposedly worked two weeks out of the month, Isaac notes that Keith says it had no impact on his commute. Isaac can tell that Keith is lying, but why? Isaac would not have thought twice about it, except he accidentally sees Keith at the airport in Los Angeles, when Keith is supposed to be in Arizona. Isaac decides to miss his own flight to follow Keith and find out what's really going on with his brother-in-law. What he discovers is beyond belief. Keith was on his way to see his other wife, Reenie, in Idaho. When Elizabeth learns the truth, and is told that Keith wants to stay with wife number one, she makes an impulse decision. She and her two children move to Idaho to be closer to daddy. In the meantime, Reenie tells Keith she wants him out of her life, despite the fact that they have three children together. Keith feels he's being cheated out of the life he deserves, and tries desperately to hang on to at least one wife.

This was a page-turner and I couldn't wait to find out how things would be resolved between all parties. This being a Harlequin, there was a romance - between Keith's first wife Reenie and Isaac. Despite the fact that Isaac feels he's betraying his sister Elizabeth by befriending the devastated Reenie, the romance takes root and things get hot and steamy - Keith being still in the picture makes it even more complicated. Big Girls Don't Cry is a fast-paced story with a romance that doesn't initially seem viable. But it's well done and comes to its logical conclusion. Readers will love to hate Keith, and will be torn between the two women whose lives he devastated. Highly recommended.

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