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Finding Isadora

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Raised by hippies, veterinarian Isadora Wheeler yearns for security, marriage, and fidelity. Her fiance fits comfortably into her plans. When Isadora meets activist lawyer Gabriel DeLuca, who's defending her father on an arson charge, "comfortable" is not the word she'd use. Gabriel awakens her passion and makes her question everything she knows about life-and love. Should she stick to the safe path or does she have the guts to follow her heart?

388 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2013

7 people are currently reading
299 people want to read

About the author

Susan Fox

36 books261 followers
There is more than one author with this name

Susan Fox, who also writes as Savanna Fox and Susan Lyons, "knows want women want in contemporary romance" (Publishers Weekly).

For complete information on Susan's books (including behind-the-scenes notes), visit her website. You can also sign up for her newsletter there.

Susan’s "Love Somebody Like You" was a 2016 finalist for Romance Writers of America®’s prestigious RITA® award. Her books have won the National Readers’ Choice Award, the HOLT Medallion, the Booksellers Best Award, the Book Buyers Best Award, the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, the Aspen Gold Readers Choice, the Golden Quill, the More Than Magic, the Lories, the Beacon, and the Laurel Wreath. "Sex Drive" was a Cosmopolitan Red-Hot Read.

Susan’s books have been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and German. Many are available as audio books.

Susan has presented workshops at the Romance Writers of America® National conference, the Surrey International Writers Conference, Word on the Lake (Salmon Arm), the RT Booklovers Convention, and regional RWA® conferences. She has spoken at library events and to reader groups. Her articles have been published in Romance Writers Report, RT Book Reviews, NINK (the Novelists Inc. newsletter), Love Letter (Germany), and RWA Chapter newsletters.

Susan is a Pacific Northwester with homes in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. She has degrees in law and psychology, and has had a variety of careers, including perennial student, computer consultant, and legal editor. Fiction writer is by far her favorite, giving her an outlet to demonstrate her belief in the power of love, friendship, and a sense of humor.

Catch up with Susan on Facebook.

Susan keeps track of her reading on Goodreads under the name Susan Lyons.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Profile Image for Amelia.
794 reviews19 followers
October 10, 2013
If the life envisioned for your future happiness could perhaps turn toward a new direction, would you follow your heart or just hope for the best? This is one of the questions that challenge the heroine in FINDING ISADORA, and she has to look deep within herself time and again before making numerous complicated decisions. Susan Fox takes Isadora Wheeler down a road filled with many obstacles that make her stop and think about not only her own life but those of people for whom she genuinely cares.

Although Isadora Wheeler enjoys the rewarding situations she experiences as a veterinarian, her personal life is not yet completely fulfilling. She does have a fiancé, so hopefully the days ahead will bring her the joy she has been wanting for years. While she has always known much love from her parents, she wants her own future to be unlike their eccentric lifestyle. Isadora believes the conservative man she is planning to marry will make her life more stable, something it has never been.

When she feels an almost overwhelming attraction to a stranger, she never intends to act on the magnetic pull. But when Gabriel DeLuca becomes the lawyer for her father, they keep running into each other. Since there are other factors that make a relationship between the two particularly awkward, Isadora knows ignoring the awareness is best as she has her life all planned out. Yet, all she can think about is Gabriel and the passion they could possibly share with each other.

Books by Susan Fox are always detailed and extremely emotional, and her first women’s fiction story convincingly portrays an agonizing period in the life of Isadora Wheeler. She seems like an ordinary woman with normal dreams, but an encounter with a man ends up altering quite a few of her ideas that she assumed nothing would ever change. The whole book is told from her perspective, and revealing facts helped me to know exactly why Isadora had certain thoughts at any given time. Being such a kindhearted individual, what she would ultimately choose to do weighed heavily on her and this made her more likable as she is never callous. How Isadora interacted with the people and animals around her told me much about her personality, and being privy to her feelings also gave insight into her nature. While some of the resolutions she came to are painful for not only her but also others, this does happen in real life and thus caused the story to be totally plausible.

There are so many wonderful secondary characters in FINDING ISADORA, and each one has such distinctive personalities. Enough background is given about several of the more prominent individuals to let me know the reasons for their responses on different occasions. Her parents are especially delightful, and visualizing someone with their viewpoints made me smile. Gabriel is a complex man, one with whom I came to truly respect because of his honesty and openness with Isadora. FINDING ISADORA believably depicts realistic motives backed by sincere emotions.

Single Titles review
Profile Image for Diana Hockley.
Author 9 books46 followers
September 23, 2013

Firstly, this book is not bad in any way. It is warm and loving in many aspects; a romance story with a different twist in the "woman finding herself" genre.

Any book which has animals included and a vet as the main character is appealing to me and this is why I originally bought Finding Isadora. I liked her animals, I liked her parents, I liked the hero - I even liked Richard - but I felt that Isadora was self-absorbed and judgemental. Her constant rehashing of her dilemma unfortunately had the effect of slowing down the action. I also felt that the age gap between her and the hero was too wide. He could have been a fair bit younger and still been feasible... I won't comment further on this aspect, but leave the thought to fester in the minds of those who decide to read the book.

The story should have satisfied all my criteria without any trouble, but I couldn't feel right about the fast turn around in who hooked up with who. The ending was unsatisfying because it left so many loose ends. I don't want to give a spoiler - many people enjoyed this book, and hopefully many more will - but I will say that it finished so abruptly that I was left feeling cheated. It is a measure perhaps of the author's skill that I wanted to know more.
911 reviews
September 15, 2018
3.5 stars rated down. Why rated down. The h is in love with a guy 2 years younger than her. Its a stable relationship where they have been having sex regularly and is actually engaged and planning to move in together. Then she falls in lust with her fiance's dad who is 15 years older and 2 days after she breaks it off with her fiance she has sex with his dad? But for all the messy relationship in this book, its very well written. Hence the 3 stars. The plot is decent and even the messiness is very well explained and rationalized beautifully by the author.
Profile Image for Blair McDowell.
Author 10 books104 followers
February 9, 2015

Finding Isadora is the delightful story of a young woman who has everything she thinks she wants, a successful career as a veterinarian, a safe conventional engagement to an attractive, conventional man with a good future ahead of him, a thoroughly conventional picket-fence sort of life well planned. As far as she can get from her parents’ life style. She loves her parents but wants her own life to be as unlike their freewheeling hippie lifestyle as possible. She wants predictability, marital fidelity and financial security above all. Or at least that’s what she thinks she wants, until she meets activist lawyer, Gabriel DeLuca, who just happens to be her fiancé’s father.

Fox is skillful in her storytelling and in drawing her characters, making them grow in believable ways as they face their problems. Almost imperceptibly we see Isadora come to understand who she really is and what she needs in her life to be true to her own nature.

I recommend Finding Isadora to all readers who enjoy women’s fiction.
Profile Image for Jamie.
25 reviews1 follower
December 24, 2013
Finding Isadora was my very first Goodreads Giveaway book. I was pretty excited to read it and ended up finishing it over a weekend when we were on a little Christmas getaway. Overall, I enjoyed this book and got sucked into Isadora's life. I enjoyed the view of a vet and how they do view their patients, being a former animal hospital employee it was refreshing to read that someone else see's what they put into their work. I would have loved to flesh out more of Janice and Martin, as well as what happened between Richard and Caroline? It ended a bit abruptly because I wanted to know more. Yes, Gabriel and Isadora find happiness but what happens to them when that "honeymoon" phase wears off. While I believe they have a strong love there is always conflict when you have 2 people come together simply because each of us were brought up by different people. So as seeing I'm trying to find out more about characters that are fictional I'd say, yeah it's worth the read.
Thank you Susan for the autograph, I love the time and care you took to prepare the package.
Profile Image for Jo-Ann Carson.
Author 38 books370 followers
June 17, 2013
What would you do if you were drawn to a man you couldn't have with a chemistry so hot it couldn't be denied?
Written in the first person, Finding Isadora, takes you right into the heroine's journey. Susan Fox's windowpane prose enables you to feel every part of Isadora's emotional world as she learns about herself and about love. She falls for the one man she shouldn't be with, but will she act on her feelings? That becomes the big question. I sat on the edge of my chair holding my breath, turning pages as fast as I could, and chanting beneath my breath, "She can't...she can't...she can't." But wondering if she would.
A great read from a great writer.
Profile Image for Anna Markland.
Author 237 books252 followers
June 23, 2013
The beautiful city of Vancouver is the setting for this convincing story of a woman’s journey to find herself. The author’s familiarity with the city is evident and Vancouver is as much a character in the book as Isadora and Gabriel. Other memorable characters are Pogo, the three legged dog and Isadora’s cheeky parrot. Ms. Fox hooks the reader with expertly written scenes full of sexual tension that thrums through the book. I would recommend Finding Isadora to anyone who appreciates a contemporary romance with well developed characters and a compelling story line that takes unexpected twists and turns.
Profile Image for Eileen Carter.
2,020 reviews9 followers
December 4, 2013
This book was one that kept me engaged, I didn't want to put it down for fear I would miss something. I loved that Susan Fox really allowed you to get into Isadora's head and know what she was thinking as she was going through the different events in the story. Susan Fox's descriptions of the scenery, places and people was incredible, it allowed you to visual the story like watching a movie.

It really peaked my interest to learn more about Canada and the cultures there. I recommend this book to everyone.
Profile Image for Janey.
478 reviews22 followers
June 21, 2015
A love story about finding who you are and that life doesn't follow a set pattern or ideals. Loved Isadora and Gabe, Great characters would have also loved to hear more about Martin and Janice and their budding romance but I needed an epilogue!, it ended far too quickly, I need to know what happened next..
Profile Image for Carol Smilgin.
Author 1 book2 followers
September 28, 2013

I don't know when I've had such fun with a book! Susan Fox is a multi-published author who in the past, worked for two publishing houses. This is a well written, fast moving romp that's full of surprises.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews

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