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Forrester Square #2
Twice and for Always
July 19, 1983
The Kinards, the Richardses and the Webbers -- Seattle's Kennedys. Their "compound" -- elegant Forrester Square. . .until the fateful night that tore these families apart.
Twenty years later. . .
Their children were reunited. Repressed memories and family secrets were about to be revealed. And one person was about to make sure they were never remembered. . .
When Meg Bassett and Brody Taylor divorced, their fraternal twins were only infants. Brody was about to move to Ireland, and joint custody would have only created upheaval in their children's lives. So Meg and Brody each took a twin. . .and they became single parents. It was a big mistake.Five years later Meg moved to Seattle, unaware that Brody had just moved there, too -- and that both twins were enrolled at Forrester Day Care! How to tell the kids their new best friend was their sibling? And how to tell each other they were still in love?
The Kinards, the Richardses and the Webbers -- Seattle's Kennedys. Their "compound" -- elegant Forrester Square. . .until the fateful night that tore these families apart.
Twenty years later. . .
Their children were reunited. Repressed memories and family secrets were about to be revealed. And one person was about to make sure they were never remembered. . .
When Meg Bassett and Brody Taylor divorced, their fraternal twins were only infants. Brody was about to move to Ireland, and joint custody would have only created upheaval in their children's lives. So Meg and Brody each took a twin. . .and they became single parents. It was a big mistake.Five years later Meg moved to Seattle, unaware that Brody had just moved there, too -- and that both twins were enrolled at Forrester Day Care! How to tell the kids their new best friend was their sibling? And how to tell each other they were still in love?
- GenresRomance
245 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
1 person is currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Gillen Thacker
379 books105 followersDear Readers,
The love stories in my family have always been fodder for romance novels.
My maternal grandmother and grandfather simultaneously ran a business together and raised four daughters, long before it was an accepted thing to do. Grandpa O’Dell ran the gas station and the barber shop; Grandma O’Dell managed the grocery and cooked for customers. They were true partners and madly in love and parted, tragically, way too soon when he succumbed to cancer when he was in his early fifties. Grandma grieved deeply but eventually picked herself up, started a new career as a cafeteria chef, and eventually found deep romantic love and happiness again, in the form of a second marriage.
Read more here...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 24, 2015
Hard to review this book; I've been swinging between 2-star and 4-star.
The first time I picked this up, I read the first ten pages or so, closed the book and threw it at the wall. I was livid. I hated Brody and Meg. Why? Well, it tells you why in the blurb, which I hadn't bothered to read.
When Meg Bassett and Brody Taylor divorced, their fraternal twins were just infants. Brody was about to move to Ireland, and joint custody would have only created upheaval in their children's lives. So Meg and Brody each took a twin...and they became single parents. It was a big mistake.
Yes, you heard me. They said, well, my career is important to me, and yours is to you, and we're not willing to compromise. So here, you take this one and I'll take that one and we won't see each other again until they're grown.
A big mistake. That's for damn sure.
I have two issues here. The first, the issue of parents with newborns willingly giving one of them up - even to the other parent - hurts my heart. I know there are parents who give up their kids for adoption because they don't feel they can cope and be good parents. I know there are parents whose spouses move across the country or across the world with the kids, and the parent left behind has no choice but to let them go. I can't entirely understand these things, because I would fight tooth and nail to keep my children with me (if I had any), and I would never, ever move to another country unless my kids' father could come with me. But I know that they happen. And I try not to let it get to me. There are parents who can't keep their kids with them, for a variety of reasons. These two, though, seem harsher than most. There's something very cold-hearted in the way they each let one of their kids go, because it was the most convenient thing to do.
But I could get over it. I think.
I could not, however, get over the splitting up of twins. You DO NOT SPLIT UP TWINS. Ever. That is not an okay thing to do. I feel very strongly on this. I may be a little irrational, a little prone to overreactions, when it comes to this subject. My mother had a twin. I have a twin soul. My mom's twin died when she was a kid, and mine lives an ocean away, and I can tell you that not having your twin there is not like missing a brother or sister. It's like missing a lung and a kidney and half of your heart.
Perhaps not all twins feel this way, but the majority of the ones I've talked to seem to. It's one thing when you're grown; then it's normal to go your own way. But tearing the two apart and raising them separately? That is not alright.
So I threw the book at the wall. Then I picked it up, skim-read it - something that I very rarely do outside of academic studies - and put it back on my bookshelf to be ignored. Then I picked it up this time - perhaps six years after I last read it - and gave it another go.
I wanted to throw it at the wall again. I restrained myself.
To their credit, Meg and Brody seem to realise quite early that they did a really shitty thing, and they spend most of the book trying to make up for it. There's still a bit of angst and selfishness, but on the whole they've grown and matured a lot since they made The Worst Decision Romance Has Ever Seen (tm), and they're willing - and eventually able - to make amends for deserting their kids and ripping them apart from each other so that they could follow their own dreams.
The book starts to get good about halfway through. At the halfway point, Brody stops being so controlling and Meg stops whinging about everything, and they suddenly turn into quite interesting characters who are - somewhat surprisingly, at least to me - likable enough for me to want a happy ending for them.
So yeah, I've massacred the book a bit here, but it gets better, once you slog through all the selfishness and recriminations of the first half. The twins are the best thing about the book - they're an absolute delight. The continuing story with Katherine and Hannah and Alexandra is as pleasing here as it is in every book in the series.
But it does take a long time to get to the good.
The first time I picked this up, I read the first ten pages or so, closed the book and threw it at the wall. I was livid. I hated Brody and Meg. Why? Well, it tells you why in the blurb, which I hadn't bothered to read.
When Meg Bassett and Brody Taylor divorced, their fraternal twins were just infants. Brody was about to move to Ireland, and joint custody would have only created upheaval in their children's lives. So Meg and Brody each took a twin...and they became single parents. It was a big mistake.
Yes, you heard me. They said, well, my career is important to me, and yours is to you, and we're not willing to compromise. So here, you take this one and I'll take that one and we won't see each other again until they're grown.
A big mistake. That's for damn sure.
I have two issues here. The first, the issue of parents with newborns willingly giving one of them up - even to the other parent - hurts my heart. I know there are parents who give up their kids for adoption because they don't feel they can cope and be good parents. I know there are parents whose spouses move across the country or across the world with the kids, and the parent left behind has no choice but to let them go. I can't entirely understand these things, because I would fight tooth and nail to keep my children with me (if I had any), and I would never, ever move to another country unless my kids' father could come with me. But I know that they happen. And I try not to let it get to me. There are parents who can't keep their kids with them, for a variety of reasons. These two, though, seem harsher than most. There's something very cold-hearted in the way they each let one of their kids go, because it was the most convenient thing to do.
But I could get over it. I think.
I could not, however, get over the splitting up of twins. You DO NOT SPLIT UP TWINS. Ever. That is not an okay thing to do. I feel very strongly on this. I may be a little irrational, a little prone to overreactions, when it comes to this subject. My mother had a twin. I have a twin soul. My mom's twin died when she was a kid, and mine lives an ocean away, and I can tell you that not having your twin there is not like missing a brother or sister. It's like missing a lung and a kidney and half of your heart.
Perhaps not all twins feel this way, but the majority of the ones I've talked to seem to. It's one thing when you're grown; then it's normal to go your own way. But tearing the two apart and raising them separately? That is not alright.
So I threw the book at the wall. Then I picked it up, skim-read it - something that I very rarely do outside of academic studies - and put it back on my bookshelf to be ignored. Then I picked it up this time - perhaps six years after I last read it - and gave it another go.
I wanted to throw it at the wall again. I restrained myself.
To their credit, Meg and Brody seem to realise quite early that they did a really shitty thing, and they spend most of the book trying to make up for it. There's still a bit of angst and selfishness, but on the whole they've grown and matured a lot since they made The Worst Decision Romance Has Ever Seen (tm), and they're willing - and eventually able - to make amends for deserting their kids and ripping them apart from each other so that they could follow their own dreams.
The book starts to get good about halfway through. At the halfway point, Brody stops being so controlling and Meg stops whinging about everything, and they suddenly turn into quite interesting characters who are - somewhat surprisingly, at least to me - likable enough for me to want a happy ending for them.
So yeah, I've massacred the book a bit here, but it gets better, once you slog through all the selfishness and recriminations of the first half. The twins are the best thing about the book - they're an absolute delight. The continuing story with Katherine and Hannah and Alexandra is as pleasing here as it is in every book in the series.
But it does take a long time to get to the good.
Read
July 24, 2008A light hearted romantic commedy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews