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Maggie Beaumont's luck is about to change. Sure, she's known for her bad romantic choices-her former boyfriend broke up with her by bringing his new girlfriend home for a visit. And then there was the crush she had on a gorgeous young Irishman, who turned out to be Father Tim, the parish's new priest. But romantic salvation has arrived in the form of handsome, if surly, fisherman Malone. It turns out there's a heart of gold underneath his barnacle-clad exterior. Will this catch of the day turn into the dish of a lifetime?
Millie Barnes is this close to finally achieving her perfect life. Rewarding job as a local doctor on Cape Cod? Check. Cute cottage of her very own? Check. Adorable dog suitable for walks past attractive locals? Check! All she needs is for golden boy and former crush Joe Carpenter to notice her, and Millie will be set. But perfection isn't as easy as it looks - especially when Sam Nickerson, a local policeman, is so distracting. He is definitely not part of her master plan. But maybe it's time for Millie to make a new plan....
Turning 30 has its ups and downs. For Callie Grey, coming to grips with her age means facing the fact that her boyfriend-slash-boss is way overdue with a marriage proposal. And that she's way off track, because Mark has suddenly announced his engagement to the company's new Miss Perfect. If that isn't bad enough, her mom decides to throw her a Big Three-Oh birthday bash - in the family funeral home.
Being one of the guys isn't all it's cracked up to be. So when journalist Chastity O'Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it's time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. Two tiny problems: one - she's five feet and 11 inches of rock-solid girl power; two - she's cursed with four alpha-male older brothers. While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor, and things start to look up. Now there's only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she's never quite gotten over....
When Grace Emerson's ex-fiancé starts dating her younger sister, extreme measures are called for. To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace announces that she's seeing someone. Someone wonderful. Someone handsome. Someone completely made up. Who is this Mr. Right? Someone - exactly unlike her renegade neighbor, Callahan O'Shea. Well, someone with his looks, maybe. His hot body. His knife-sharp sense of humor. His smarts and big heart.
Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her lovable, if off-center, family, and she has a boyfriend-sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking - something like Liam Murphy. When Posey was 16, the bad boy of Bellsford, New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again.
Maggie Beaumont's luck is about to change. Sure, she's known for her bad romantic choices-her former boyfriend broke up with her by bringing his new girlfriend home for a visit. And then there was the crush she had on a gorgeous young Irishman, who turned out to be Father Tim, the parish's new priest. But romantic salvation has arrived in the form of handsome, if surly, fisherman Malone. It turns out there's a heart of gold underneath his barnacle-clad exterior. Will this catch of the day turn into the dish of a lifetime?
Millie Barnes is this close to finally achieving her perfect life. Rewarding job as a local doctor on Cape Cod? Check. Cute cottage of her very own? Check. Adorable dog suitable for walks past attractive locals? Check! All she needs is for golden boy and former crush Joe Carpenter to notice her, and Millie will be set. But perfection isn't as easy as it looks - especially when Sam Nickerson, a local policeman, is so distracting. He is definitely not part of her master plan. But maybe it's time for Millie to make a new plan....
Turning 30 has its ups and downs. For Callie Grey, coming to grips with her age means facing the fact that her boyfriend-slash-boss is way overdue with a marriage proposal. And that she's way off track, because Mark has suddenly announced his engagement to the company's new Miss Perfect. If that isn't bad enough, her mom decides to throw her a Big Three-Oh birthday bash - in the family funeral home.
Being one of the guys isn't all it's cracked up to be. So when journalist Chastity O'Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it's time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. Two tiny problems: one - she's five feet and 11 inches of rock-solid girl power; two - she's cursed with four alpha-male older brothers. While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor, and things start to look up. Now there's only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she's never quite gotten over....
When Grace Emerson's ex-fiancé starts dating her younger sister, extreme measures are called for. To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace announces that she's seeing someone. Someone wonderful. Someone handsome. Someone completely made up. Who is this Mr. Right? Someone - exactly unlike her renegade neighbor, Callahan O'Shea. Well, someone with his looks, maybe. His hot body. His knife-sharp sense of humor. His smarts and big heart.
Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her lovable, if off-center, family, and she has a boyfriend-sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking - something like Liam Murphy. When Posey was 16, the bad boy of Bellsford, New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again.
Faith Holland left her hometown after being jilted at the altar. Now a little older and wiser, she's ready to return to the Blue Heron Winery, her family's vineyard, to confront the ghosts of her past, and maybe enjoy a glass of red. After all, there's some great scenery there.... Like Levi Cooper, the local police chief - and best friend of her former fiancé. There's a lot about Levi that Faith never noticed, and it's not just those deep green eyes.
Divorce attorney Harper James can't catch a break. Bad enough that she runs into her ex-hubby, Nick, at her sister's destination wedding, but now, by a cruel twist of fate, she's being forced to make a cross-country road trip with him. And her almost-fiancé back at home is not likely to be sympathetic.
Ainsley O'Leary is so ready to get married - she's even found the engagement ring her boyfriend has stashed away. What she doesn't anticipate is for Eric to blindside her with a tactless breakup he chronicles in a blog - which (of course) goes viral. Devastated and humiliated, Ainsley turns to her half sister, Kate, who's already struggling after the sudden loss of her new husband.
It's been over a decade since Nora left her hometown of Scupper Island, Maine, and very seldom looked back. She's carved out a successful life in Boston, where no one knows her as the awkward girl with the delinquent sister and the dad who left, but a not-as-dramatic-as-it-sounds brush with death has her taking stock of her life. Inspired to reconnect with her prickly mother and snarky teenage niece, Nora returns home for the summer, where she's forced to face the people she's spent the last ten years trying to avoid.
Wedding-dress designer Jenny Tate understands the happily ever after business, yet somehow she's still involved in her ex-husband's life. In fact Owen's new wife may - inexplicably - be Jenny's new best friend. Sensing this, well, relationship isn't helping her move on, Jenny trades the Manhattan skyline for her hometown up the Hudson, where she'll be able to bask in her sister Rachel's picture-perfect family life...and hopefully make one of her own.
Jennifer Chaise is proud of her life. Coming from nothing, she's used her beauty to her advantage and is swept up in a glamorous world of wealth and privilege as the mistress of a high-flying businessman. But when she walks in on a violent scene in their Las Vegas hotel room, Jennifer knows she can no longer ignore the truth about her boyfriend, and she flees. Desperate to escape the men searching for her, she invents a whole new persona - with a new look and a new name - as she hides out in a small Nevada town.
As captain of a San Francisco Bay tour boat, Pru can handle rough seas - the hard part is life on dry land. Pru loves her new apartment and her neighbors; problem is, she's in danger of stumbling into love with Mr. Right for Anybody but Her.
Between the urban bustle of Denver and the high-stress environment of a career in neurosurgery, Maggie Sullivan has hit a wall. When an emergency high-risk procedure results in the death of a teenager, Maggie finds herself in the middle of a lawsuit - and experiencing levels of anxiety she's never faced before. She knows she needs to slow down before she burns out completely, and the best place she can think to do that is Sullivan's Crossing.
The moment she turns 25, Kayla Bedford is going to grab her trust-fund money and take off for Paris. She'll drink wine, read at quaint cafés, and meet a handsome prince who'll sweep her off her feet. It's been her dream since she was 12. And now she's so close to realizing it, she's counting down the days. But first she's got to do something for her boss-slash-landlord-slash-best-friend. Patrick is a handsome, caring vet. But he needs someone to love, even if he doesn't think so.
A television talk show host returns to her childhood summer home to rebuild her life after she's fired for falling ratings. The return is bittersweet as the house has been neglected for years. She's flooded with memories of the wonderful summers she spent with her sisters and cousins before a tragic event changed everything. Working to uncover what really happened the last summer they were all together, she reaches out to her family and the women all gather for an uneasy family reunion.
Emily Callaghan never expected to spend another summer on Wenniway Island. Yet here she is, back in her quaint northern Michigan hometown of Trillium Bay, divorced, flat broke, and dragging along her precocious 12-year-old. It's a simple arrangement: Emily, a house flipper, will renovate one of her grandmother's rental properties in exchange for a much-needed loan. Once a wild child, the reformed Emily also hopes to remodel her reputation and show her family she's all grown up.
Nicole Lord wants to be a good wife, but there's a difference between being supportive and supporting her husband, who quit his job to write a screenplay she's never seen. He won't even help take care of their son, leaving Nicole to run the house and work full-time at her Mischief Bay Pilates studio. Can she say enough is enough without losing the man she loves?
Lucy Lang isn't looking for fireworks. She's looking for a nice, decent man. Someone who'll mow the lawn, flip chicken on the barbecue, teach their future children to play soccer. But most important: someone who won't inspire the slightest stirring in her heart - or anywhere else.
A young widow, Lucy can't risk that kind of loss again. But sharing her life with a cat named Fat Mikey and the Black Widows at the family bakery isn't enough either. So it's good-bye to Ethan, her hot but entirely inappropriate "friend with privileges", and hello to a man she can marry.
Too bad Ethan Mirabelli isn't going anywhere. As far as he's concerned, what she needs might be right under her nose. But can he convince her that the next best thing can really be forever?
Perfect comedic writing with outstanding narration. I love this combo of Kristan Higgins and Xe Sands. Thanks for bringing her older novels to audio. They are a joy!!!
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
I really got sick of Lucy who just would not let her dead husband go. The book drug on forever waiting on her to see that she had a chance for true love again. I just got sick of it. I truly liked Ethan, who was in love with Lucy. He was a great character. I did not like Lucy. She was a weak person and just not likable in general, in my opinion.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Like all of Kristan Higgins books, this book is filled with entertaining characters, witty banter and lead characters that you come to care about quickly.
And like all of Kristan Higgins books, the main characters struggle with an underlying layer of sadness in their hearts. What is slightly discouraging about this title is that the characters struggle with the sadness for the whole story, keeping a tug in my chest for the entire 10-hour playing time.
The sadness is a necessary part of these characters' personal journeys, but this book may be harder to listen to than most Kristan Higgins' novels because each was resigned to the idea that their sadness was going to be part of their lives forever.
I do recommend this book, but maybe not if you are in a sad place yourself. Set it aside for a time when you can enjoy a a good tug on your heart strings.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Another book that I can't stop listening to
Ethan😍 another one that I would love to see as a movie
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
When you combine Xe Sand and Kristan Higgins, is like the best of both worlds. Love how she make every character come to live with every detail, and how Xe portrait every voice. I laughed hard, cry, and got mad with some characters. I felt like I was there with them. I fell in love with my lovely widows, they were so funny and Ethan, awwww Ethan. oh well no more, I don't want to spoil the book. Enjoy it.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I began the story liking the leaf lady then, I was tired of her but, later I once again liked her.
The narrator was great.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Excellent narration!!! The story is great, character development, depth, laughter and tears but the narration is amazing!
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up The Next Best Thing in three words, what would they be?
A heartfelt gem.
What did you like best about this story?
How wonderful Ethan was in comforting Lucy when she needed it. He was so selfless and kind.
Which scene was your favorite?
When she found the "toast". You'll understand when you listen.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
When you think love is done with you, the best surprises can be right in front of you.
Any additional comments?
This is a series, however, its also a stand alone. Perfect for a rainy day when you just want to swoon, smile, cry and smile again.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I have become a Kristan Higgins fan.. one book at a time.. Definitely some out loud laughing with this book.. You wont be disappointed
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I am a big Kristan Higgins fan, however this book was not as enjoyable as most of her writing The main character in the book is such an emotional wreck through out the whole book it was rough to finish
1 of 1 people found this review helpful