That Way Again

by Carolyn Brown

Kitty Maguire and Preston Fleming fell head over heels in love the first time they saw each other. They were planning a wedding and the rest of their lives together. But Kitty's great-aunt put an end to all that in the course of one phone call, shattering both of their hearts and ruining their lives. Neither Kitty nor Preston would have thought her capable of telling one lie, much less two. Then when she died suddenly a week later, they never found out.
Five years later, Kitty comes back to Caddo, Oklahoma to sell Aunt Bertha's house and to finally put closure on the fiasco that broke her heart in a million pieces when she found out Preston had found another woman. As luck would have it, every time she turns around he's right there. The tingle is still there as well as the love, but he's married... or at least Kitty thinks he is.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Christian, Second Chance

195 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Hi! I'm twenty five years old and movie star gorgeous. The camera added thirty plus years and a few wrinkles. Can't trust those cameras or mirrors either. Along with bathroom scales they are notorious liars! Honestly, I am the mother of three fantastic grown children who've made me laugh and given me more story ideas than I could ever write. My husband, Charles, is my strongest supporter and my best friend. He's even willing to eat fast food and help with the laundry while I finish one more chapter! Life is good and I am blessed!

Reading has been a passion since I was five years old and figured out those were words on book pages. As soon as my chubby little fingers found they could put words on a Big Chief tablet with a fat pencil, I was on my way. Writing joined reading in my list of passions. I will read anything from the back of the Cheerio's box to Faulkner and love every bit of it. In addition to reading I enjoy cooking, my family and the ocean. I love the Florida beaches. Listening to the ocean waves puts my writing brain into high gear.

I love writing romance because it's about emotions and relationships. Human nature hasn't changed a bit since Eve coveted the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Settings change. Plots change. Names change. Times change. But love is love and men and women have been falling in and out of it forever. Romance is about emotions: love, hate, anger, laughter... all of it. If I can make you laugh until your sides ache or grab a tissue then I've touched your emotions and accomplished what every writer sets out to do.

I got serious about writing when my third child was born and had her days and nights mixed up. I had to stay up all night anyway and it was very quiet so I invested in a spiral back notebook and sharpened a few pencils. The story that emerged has never sold but it's brought in enough rejection slips to put the Redwood Forest on the endangered list. In 1997 Kensington bought two books for their Precious Gems line. Two years and six books later the line died with only four of those books seeing publication. But by then Avalon had bought a book and another, and another. Ten years later the list has grown to thirty nine. Last year Sourcebooks bought the Lucky Series which is in the bookstores now. They've also bought The Honky Tonk Series which will debut with I LOVE THIS BAR in June and will be followed by HELL, YEAH, MY GIVE A DAMN'S BUSTED, and HONKY TONK CHRISTMAS.

Folks ask me where I get my ideas. Three kids, fifteen grandchildren, two great grandchildren. Note: I was a very young grandmother! Life is a zoo around here when they all come home. In one Sunday afternoon there's enough ideas to keep me writing for years and years. Seriously, ideas pop up at the craziest times. When one sinks its roots into my mind, I have no choice but to write the story. And while I'm writing the characters peek over my shoulder and make sure I'm telling it right and not exaggerating too much. Pesky little devils, they are!

I have a wonderful agent, Erin Niumata, who continues to work magic and sell my work. I'm very lucky to have her and my editors who continue to believe in me.

Happy reading!

Reviews

[Wendy Keel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good quick read

This was a quick easy read. Only took a few hours to finish. The story is engaging and well written. However I did feel the resolution to the whole misunderstanding was a little rushed. Overall this was a good read. I did enjoy it.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great second chance romance. Kitty and Preston were torn apart by a lie when they were young. Five years later, Kitty returns to a town that seems to hate her. It takes a while for her to figure out why and the lie is finally uncovered. Despite still having feelings for each other, Kitty and Preston have grown up into different people than they were when they were young. They must determine if there is enough love left to build a new relationship.

I think what I liked best about this quick romance is the layout of this plot. We know about the lie right away, and fate seems to keep the truth from the characters for only a short time before everything is out in the open again. The rest of the book is Kitty and Preston trying to figure out if they can move forward given who they are now as people. I enjoyed it.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, Amazon got me again...I read the description and it sounded good...the problem is I DO NOT like Carolyn Brown. Do not read this, it's really folksy and poorly written. I finished it out of principal because I paid for it.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story had me hooked after I read the first chapter. I do wish Kitty and Preston would've tried a little harder to contact the other, but it was out of the blue for Bertha to do what she did.

I had the hardest time with Kitty and her having no desire to read "the letters" she thought were from her mom to Bertha. Would it have hurt to have at least glanced at them to be sure what she was disposing before doing it? It was like the story had to take nearly supernatural events to get them to realize what had happened. And what kind of best friend wouldn't have wanted to talk to understand how and why she could have done what Lisa thought Kitty did?

The ending was a little too easy, but I guess the book needed to be a certain length.

If you are looking for an easy read in the contemporary romance genre, you might enjoy reading this story.

Quote I enjoyed from the book:
"A heart that holds grudges and hatred has no room for love to grow, and there would be only love begotten from her heart." - page 180

[Ellen Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

That Way Again

Quick and enjoyable. Kitty seemed a lot more messed up with everything,but I'm figuring it's because she didn't have the same type of support.

[Nicolette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as previous ones.

This book was lacking the characters from her other books. The story was dragged out. There was only one real crisis and it just kept on going and going. I found myself skipping ahead to finish it. I usually enjoy her stories much more than this one.

[Sylvia Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

That way again

.nice young people romance story. I thought it moved rather slowly and was pretty predictable. But it was a nice rainy day read.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable

I knew from page 5 what was going to happen . And it wasn't even well done. Her job as a profiler could have been used somehow. The author has done much better.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

When she was 16, Aunt Bertha was left at the altar, jilted. Since then, her opinion of men would qualify her for the presidency of 4th wave feminism worldwide.
This mindset caused a divorce when her niece married, became pregnant, had a daughter of her own. and was discontented staying at home. She divorced her husband, who was still involved in Kitty's life. Then Kitty's mom ended up terminally ill, dying just after Kitty's 12th birthday. A naturally affectionate child, Kitty soon discovered she'd have to work out the fear nightmares caused on her own...that hugging was simply not done...that, basically, you did your duties without complaint.
Bertha Mason's goal for Kitty is no marriage, no boyfriends, nothing but hard school work, high marks, college, and career. The love of Kitty's life, Preston Fleming, is in the Navy when she falls for him. They planned to marry once his enlistment was up, then to go to college and study architecture, get their degrees, and start a business.
Then, the day before she's to leave for college, she's waiting for a call from Oreston, when they go on shore leave...just 3 min. to talk with Kitty. Instead, Bertha tells him Kitty has been seeing a man up near where her father lives, and they're in love and planning on getting married. She's believed because she hasn't ever lied before. Then Bertha tells Kitty that her cad of a boyfriend has met a woman in the Navy and fallen for her and the 2 of them will get married. Both young people are heartbroken but Bertha considers herself to have saved her great niece from a man, so the pain is good for her.
5 days later, Bertha's neighbor Mabel finds Bertha dead in her rocker on the porch. Kitty's dad has to arrange the funeral because Kitty had a ruptured appendix with complications, and was too sick to go to the funeral. She paid Mabel to look after the house while she attended classes, taking a max load to get a masters' and start work on a PhD. Now, she's an FBI profiler.
But, eventually, she has to see to sorting out the house and face down the ghosts...and deal with the fact that Preston still lives in the same place.
Preston got his degrees in architecture and started a business building custom houses. He owns a small ranch and has a nice place. He's heard Kitty will be selling her great aunt's house and auctioning off some of the items she doesn't want.
Every place she goes during her brief stay, someone is saying something hateful to or about her, much of it having to do with her supposedly marrying a rich Yankee and trampling Preston's heart.
The answer lies in Bertha's dresser drawer. Will Kitty recognize it before she burns it? Will Preston, whom Kitty is convinced is married, believe her? Will they write the relationship off or try to restore it?

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

That Way Again is by Carolyn Brown. As usual, her novels catch your attention from the very first sentence. This one was iconic. “There wasn’t a man on the face of the earth worth the bullet to put him six feet under.” Bertha Mason definitely had strong feelings about men. After having been left at the altar, she was against marriage. She would have intervened in her niece’s marriage if she could have. Then she brought up her great niece, Kitty McGuire for the last six years. She would do anything to keep her away from Preston Fleming. She wanted Kitty to place all her attention on her education and job and forget about men. Then her chance came and she took it. That her great niece left Caddo, Oklahoma for college with a broken heart was not a problem for Bertha. Her mission had been accomplished.
Five years later, Kitty returned to Caddo to finally clear out her great aunt’s house. Bertha had died just after Kitty left for college. An emergency appendectomy had kept her from attending her aunt’s funeral so this was the first time she had returned. To her amazement and confusion, the whole town seemed to have turned against her and thought she was married. Kitty had no idea what they were talking about.
Preston Fleming saw Kitty’s truck outside her aunt’s house and knew she was back. Why had she kept the truck they picked out together? He couldn’t wait until she left town; but at the same time, he wanted an explanation for her having broken his heart by breaking their engagement.
Would they ever get together and talk about what happened? Would they ever get to the bottom of the problem? Their chance at happiness together was gone, or was it?
The book is great and was impossible to put down so it was another late night. The tissues came out as well. Carolyn Brown has another hit.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summer reading at its best! Aunt was left standing at the altar in her teens, which left her off men forever, totally embittered. As a result she lied to her niece and her fiancée about each other in a most diabolical fashion, telling them the most atrocious lies about each other and tearing them apart. When they meet again five years later, each thinking the other is married, another result of the aunt’s lies, the plot thickens, as the saying goes. Brown doesn’t leave her readers hanging chapter after chapter. She fills in details and moves the action right along. She’s great for the middle of the night!

[Kathy Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why do relatives think they know the person that should or shouldn't be your lifelong spouse? And, why would a community who thinks said relative never lies believe they would even when the lie tears a relationship to pieces which makes two honest and loving youth be portrayed as horrible people? Lies can be unearthed and in this situation took five years to do it. When two people are meant to be, if they are willing to not ignore the signs, love can be restored. Sometimes we must just get past ourselves to see what is really important in our lives.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aunt Bertha interfered in Kitty Maguire and Preston Fleming's life. What she did drove them apart in spite of their love for each other. She broke each of their hearts with her maliciousness. Five years later their paths cross. Can they make sense of all that has happened? Will they be able to build on what they once had? Great story with wonderful characters. I loved every minute of this book.

[Penny Leidecker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read several of Carolyn Brown’s books and That Way Again is an enjoyable read. I read this book in one sitting and wasn’t disappointed. This book centers around Kitty and Preston. They were looking forward to getting married, until Kitty’s Aunt Bertha told them each a similar lie. Now, it’s five years later and Kitty returns to Caddo to sell her aunt’s house and contents. Grab your copy and get ready to read a terrific second chance romance.

[Susan J McMahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of Caroline Brown’s books but this one without a doubt has been my favorite. I haven’t been able to put it down. I even cried through parts of it. Love this book so much.

I love all of her books. This without a doubt has been my absolute favorite. I couldn’t put it down. I even cried reading parts of it. I love the story told in this book. Simply beautiful and so well written. Highly recommend it.

[Zachary Bauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

That Way Again

Carolyn Brown has a beautiful authors heart,this book was sad but beautiful.in the beginning of the book true lovers are torn apart by a lie that almost destroyed them both but love will prevail for it is triumphant.The Moral Of This Breathtaking Story Is To Fight For What Your Heart Wants!

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly lovely

Oh Kitty and Preston story is filled with turmoil twists and turn. It made me wonder how it would work out. I'm so glad she was able to see passed her Aunt Bertha and awful lies. The words that Kitty used "My heart can't harbour hate, when there's love to be had" These are words that will stay with me. Thank you Carolyn hugs xx

[Satinstitcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always Carolyn Brown hits it out of the park!

The stories are so good that I hate to see the last page. I even like the small town know it all's. I am working my way through her library of work. There are so many from years ago.
She has a way of painting pictures with word so the you see the small town and all her colorful characters. Going on to by next story!!!

[Maria Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anger, Believing Lies, Hopeful Reconciling

I was so angry through the first pages, I almost didn’t read more.
The old woman was horrid. She ruined at least two lives.
This is why I give three stars.
The story shows how many people cannot see the truths. Only near the end do we witness true love.

[Patricia A. Biba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interfere

The complex story really showed how someone using their own feelings can cause a lot of hurt to the people that they tell lies. I kept wondering how the book would solve the problem so that the individuals could get on with their lives. It was interesting to see what they finally did to come to an understanding and go on with their lives. Good reading.

[carol davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlike some others who have written reviews I am a big fan of Carolyn Brown. Not this time, the entire premise was something out of the 50's. 40's or 30's.. Your Aunt tells lies and you don't question or even talk to each other.....you just go on leading a miserable life and pining for each other....Good Grief! Sorry Ms Brown but this is not what I expect..... no. no. no!

[ViviancMoore · Rating 4 out of 5]

That Way Again

Kitty and Preston are in love until her meddling Aunt Berths lies to both of them. Five years later Kitty is back in her hometown to sell Aunt Berth as house and its contents in an auction. Kitty needs to decide whether her heart or her brain should control her life.

[ILuv2Read · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I just could not finish this book...though I made it to the 85% mark...I just dont care what hapoens to Kitty and Preston.The main characters were more like high schoolers adults, the content is too PG, and the story was too predictable. It's too bad because I do like some of Ms. Brown's other books.

[Betty Hansford · Rating 5 out of 5]

True Love

The Irish in me says true love never dies, and I believe that firmly. I love your books, Ms. Brown, and feel so fortunate to have discovered them. They've given me many hours of pleasure, and for that, I thank you.

[Betty Ann Burban · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two sweethearts separated by a bitter woman

Kitty and Preston did not realise they had 0been torn apart by a vicious lie,five years later and the discovery of the truth helps them move towards happiness together

[Santina Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interrupted Love

What a strange situation of love interrupted. Cruelly hearts were broken and torn apart only to be reunited five years later. Each action, reveals whether they can renew what they once had, or walk away never to resume.

[Susan Greenwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book.

I loved it. Carolyn Brown is a really good author. I've read several of her books. This book That Way Again was excellent. Very hard to put down and a beautiful story.

[Sharon Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another hard book to put down

Even though you can figure out how it will end fairly early, I had a problem putting it down at night so I could sleep. Great love story with several twists. Loved this book

[Judy G Spivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two lies, split to lives, can they be put back together. Does love truly conquer all.

Great writing as usual. Predictable end but a unique story line of his two you g people in love get separated by the gate in an old woman.

[Phyllis Washburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad with a twist of joy

Two people who met deep hurt in heartbreaking circumstances who found joy through forgiveness. Great lesson in the importance of forgiving the offender. Good read!