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Meryl's Commitment
After meeting a man dubbed by her colleagues as “Mr. Drop Dead Gorgeous”, Meryl Chamblee is in danger of failing in her solemn commitments to family and career. As she struggles to prove herself in the competitive field of architectural design and desperately tries to preserve her family home, she must face new emotions and opportunities. Meryl can’t decide whether the handsome real-estate executive has ulterior motives or whether he’s the answer to her prayers. He professes to be drawn to her, but is he really, or is he just after her family's property. How can she be sure?
139 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 2012
7 people want to read
About the author
Rona Simmons
11 books49 followersRona Simmons is an award winning author of historical fiction and nonfiction. For the last several years, she has focused on untold and often overlooked stories from World War II, “The sweep of events, from the First World War, to the Great Depression, to World War II, had momentous impact on our lives,” Simmons says. She adds, “the era is a period we can still almost touch with our fingertips,” as she demonstrated successfully in her writing. Her latest work, No Average Day will be released in October 2024, bringing new stories to light.
Simmons has also written for literary journals and online and print magazines and newspapers and is active in her local writing community
Simmons has also written for literary journals and online and print magazines and newspapers and is active in her local writing community
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 31, 2012
Meryl is a 20 something intern at a design firm in Atlanta. She has the country home, Little Moss, she grew up in and inherited from her parents, and when time allows she heads there on the weekends. Some big city fellow is buying up all the properties on her road. Little Moss is the only one remaining and she has no intention of selling. But Meryl is finding the current owner of the rest of the properties, Riccardo, extremely charming.
First the positive: I really loved the premise; the book summary is just the sort of thing I like to read. It sounded like a Harlequin romance to me and sometimes that is just the kind of book I am in the mood for. A short, sweet trip down the road to the guaranteed Happily Ever After!
The negative: The book is all over the place. It bounces back and forth, quite awkwardly, from present to past. It was an unnecessary transition and I don’t know why the author chose to write the book this way. For example Meryl and Riccardo go on a date. You get treated to very little of the date in the present tense, just the very beginning. Then it’s the next day and Meryl’s co-workers are grilling her about the date, she gives them basically the same Cliff’s Notes version we read then later when Meryl is at her desk she is day dreaming about the date. The daydream is the date in its entirety. Pages take us back to the night before and we are reading a detailed lengthy version of the date. Why didn’t those pages happen when the date was taking place? It was so long for a day dream I got to thinking that maybe I misread and they were on another date. So I backtracked, nope, just a daydream. There are several examples of past creeping into the present, the story opens with one. It really ruined the flow of the story.
The changing of points of view wasn’t seamless or necessary either. Not only do you get Meryl’s first person account of things, but then Riccardo’s, the co-workers and I think her cousins have a turn in there, too. It was just another bump in the road for me. There are a lot of words underlined throughout the story. I am sure it is meant to put emphasis on those words, but I just found it another distraction breaking into my reading enjoyment.
Riccardo was hot and cold throughout the story. They essentially have one date and he pretty much ignores her after that… Then suddenly they are in love? They haven’t had any real conversations. Meryl doesn’t trust him up till the very end. I wish the author would have made them connect a little more before the ending.
The makings of a good story are here, they just need a better editor and some serious polish.
Cherise Everhard, August 2012
First the positive: I really loved the premise; the book summary is just the sort of thing I like to read. It sounded like a Harlequin romance to me and sometimes that is just the kind of book I am in the mood for. A short, sweet trip down the road to the guaranteed Happily Ever After!
The negative: The book is all over the place. It bounces back and forth, quite awkwardly, from present to past. It was an unnecessary transition and I don’t know why the author chose to write the book this way. For example Meryl and Riccardo go on a date. You get treated to very little of the date in the present tense, just the very beginning. Then it’s the next day and Meryl’s co-workers are grilling her about the date, she gives them basically the same Cliff’s Notes version we read then later when Meryl is at her desk she is day dreaming about the date. The daydream is the date in its entirety. Pages take us back to the night before and we are reading a detailed lengthy version of the date. Why didn’t those pages happen when the date was taking place? It was so long for a day dream I got to thinking that maybe I misread and they were on another date. So I backtracked, nope, just a daydream. There are several examples of past creeping into the present, the story opens with one. It really ruined the flow of the story.
The changing of points of view wasn’t seamless or necessary either. Not only do you get Meryl’s first person account of things, but then Riccardo’s, the co-workers and I think her cousins have a turn in there, too. It was just another bump in the road for me. There are a lot of words underlined throughout the story. I am sure it is meant to put emphasis on those words, but I just found it another distraction breaking into my reading enjoyment.
Riccardo was hot and cold throughout the story. They essentially have one date and he pretty much ignores her after that… Then suddenly they are in love? They haven’t had any real conversations. Meryl doesn’t trust him up till the very end. I wish the author would have made them connect a little more before the ending.
The makings of a good story are here, they just need a better editor and some serious polish.
Cherise Everhard, August 2012
December 30, 2012
I received a review copy in exchange for my honest review.
This was an interesting book. I wouldn't classify it as a romance as there really wasn't any. It was more or less about a woman who works her butt off as an intern at an architectural firm in Atlanta to help pay the upkeep on her beloved family home in a small town hours away from the city hoping to be hired on in a full-time position. She finds out that there's a man who's buying up property all around her, but she refuses to sell.
Meryl is a bright young woman with what looks to be a solid future. She's not overly worried about marriage or children; she's very career-oriented. As the book goes along she learns a lot about herself and the world around her.
Lisa and Kim were great secondary characters that made me giggle. Riccardo, I'm still not sure if I liked him or not. In fact, you really don't get to know much about him as he's very secretive.
Other than some editing and grammar mistakes, I really enjoyed this book and hope there is a sequel.
This was an interesting book. I wouldn't classify it as a romance as there really wasn't any. It was more or less about a woman who works her butt off as an intern at an architectural firm in Atlanta to help pay the upkeep on her beloved family home in a small town hours away from the city hoping to be hired on in a full-time position. She finds out that there's a man who's buying up property all around her, but she refuses to sell.
Meryl is a bright young woman with what looks to be a solid future. She's not overly worried about marriage or children; she's very career-oriented. As the book goes along she learns a lot about herself and the world around her.
Lisa and Kim were great secondary characters that made me giggle. Riccardo, I'm still not sure if I liked him or not. In fact, you really don't get to know much about him as he's very secretive.
Other than some editing and grammar mistakes, I really enjoyed this book and hope there is a sequel.
March 25, 2013
This was a delightful story. The author skillfully interweaves career, romance and family ties to a beautiful southern coastal property called Little Moss. I loved the descriptions of the beach and the city, and I wanted to know more about architecture and design, not to mention a very intriguing Italian man who appears in Meryl's life at an interesting moment.
March 20, 2015
Well, of course, I have rated this book with five stars, after all I am the author. I have received other favorable reviews and hope that the Goodreads community will be supplying additional "good" reads going forward.
December 23, 2012
This book was given me on Goodreads. I made a podcast about it on http://soundcloud.com/anthrofashion
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews