One True Love by Barbara Freethy is a romantic fiction novel with two love stories in one. It centers around two female characters: Lisa Alvarez and Maggie Scott. The primary main character, Lisa, must face her past failed marriage and dead daughter in order to move on to her future love life. The secondary female, Maggie, must solve the mystery behind her recently deceased husband in order to move on with her life and become a strong mother and woman again.
Organization: Sequence and Point of View
The book is told in a fairly chronological order but with a lot of flashback. In fact, the opening scene is a flashback. Flashbacks are usually in italics and they are either scenes/images or dialogues from the past. They are used primarily to reveal the relevant past of the main characters and to also show the relationship history between characters. A couple of times it is to contrast the past from the present. The flashbacks are told from a character's point of view.
The author is third person omniscient, but she focuses on giving insight into the minds of four of the characters (in order of importance): Lisa Alvarez, Maggie Scott, Nick Maddux, and Raymond Curtis. Each of these four characters have at least one flashback during their story. The author switches fairly consistently between characters but primarily focuses on writing from the view of Lisa and Maggie.
Plot Summary
Lisa will marry her boss (21 years older than her) in about one month. Her life changes when she receives a gift/reminder of the past and a phone call from her childhood best friend. She must return to her hometown and face the past she has been avoiding: her mother, her ex-husband, and her dead daughter. She must also face her insecurities as a mother when she takes care of Maggie's three children for the week (although she does receive help from some rather unexpected visitors).
Nick, Lisa's ex-husband and Maggie's brother, has finally turned his life around after Lisa left him and his daughter's death. When Lisa comes into town, he is a bit reluctant to face her but he wants to help out his sister with her children. He is torn in his attempts to make Lisa see that she still loves him and to also push her away so she won't leave him again.
Maggie, Lisa's childhood best-friend and Nick's sister, is having an emotional breakdown from being a single mother of three for the past year and a mysterious letter that leads her to believe her dead husband was unfaithful. She embarks on a journey to find the mystery woman. Along the way, she meets a gorgeous man who sees her as a woman (not just as a mother) and she begins to suspect that her dead husband might not actually be dead but leading a second life.
Raymond, Lisa's fiance, suspects something is wrong when Lisa unpredictably leaves work to go home. While Lisa is away, he begins to re-evaluate their relationship.
Review
This book is a fast beach read; I actually read it on vacation in one day. The shifts between characters were fairly well paced: not long enough to forget about the other characters, but not so short that insight isn't gained from that character. The main characters are fairly well-developed, and while the minor characters are flat and slightly unrealistic/abnormal (i.e. a gorgeous man who takes interest in an average-looking woman), they are at least interesting. There are a few kissing scenes but nothing disgustingly graphic.
Unfortunately, the typographical errors within the book are distracting; they range from missing punctuation to missing and incorrect words. Overall, I think this book is good for someone looking for an enjoyable and light read. The ending ties up the two main characters' (Lisa and Maggie) respective love stories, but I was left curious about what happened to Raymond.
About the Author
Barbara Freethy; an award-winning author, has written a few books that have made it on the New York Times' Bestsellers list, one of which hit #1. She has currently (as of 2011) published about 30 books but she is in the process of self-publishing more of her writing.
Source:
Freethy, Barabara. One True Love. Avon, 1998. ISBN: 978-0380794805
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