A Family Affair: The Return

Truth in Lies #13

by Mary Campisi

Magdalena, New York
Home of memories long buried, steamy nights, and one regrettable summer…

Grace Romano had been seventeen, impressionable, innocent to the power of attraction and desire. Max Ruhland taught her about both. He loved Grace and thought they had a future together, until she crushed his heart and told him he wasn’t part of her life plan.

Twenty-two years later, Grace Romano Clarke is a widow with two children and a pile of broken dreams. When her aunt dies, she must return to Magdalena, the town she’d rather forget, to honor the woman’s last wishes: stay in her house for thirty days, and complete a list that, according to her aunt, will reveal a bit about life and maybe reveal something about herself, too.

What Grace doesn’t know but will find out soon enough is that Max Ruhland must stay in the house with her and help complete the list!

Max Ruhland isn’t the same lovesick puppy from the wrong side of the tracks who had his heart broken all those years ago. He’s a wealthy, successful businessman who owes his good fortune to Grace’s aunt, the woman who never gave up on him. Max can have any woman he wants, but he’s never forgotten Grace, or how she hurt him. Now he’ll have to spend the next thirty days with her—in close quarters—to honor her aunt’s last wishes, and he’s not looking forward to it. It’s going to get very interesting as the town watches and wonders what’s going on between those two.

Of course, Pop Benito understands exactly what’s happening in the house on Bayberry Street, even if Max and Grace don’t. He’s the one who helped Grace’s aunt create the thirty-day list, which he insists will finally get this couple their happily-ever-after!

BONUS MATERIAL: Included in this e-book is the first chapter of Strangers Like Us, Book 1 in the Reunion Gap series.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Amazon, Fiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2017

About the author

Mary Campisi is the author of over 40 emotion-packed novels that center around hope, redemption, and second chances.

Mary should have known she'd become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.

When she's not working on her craft or following the lives of five adult children, Mary's digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab, Henry, or, on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own hero/husband on his Ultra Limited aka Harley.

If you would like to be notified when Mary has a new release, please sign up at http://www.marycampisi.com/book/book-...

website: marycampisi.com
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blog: marycampisi.com/blog/
twitter: twitter.com/MaryCampisi
facebook: facebook.com/marycampisibooks
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Reviews

[Rena Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Family Affair – The Return is the 13th book in Mary Campisi’s Truth in Lies series.
This book takes place in Magdalena, a small town in the state of New York.
Once you visit Magdalena for the first time, you will want to return over and over again to follow the lives of those that call Magdalena home.
All of the books in the Truth in Lies series follow a theme of forgiveness and love and
A Family Affair – The Return is no exception. I feel like the characters are friends that I am checking in on and spending time with, which is the best type of book to read in my opinion!
In A Family Affair – The Return we meet Grace Romano Clark and Max Ruhland.
Max grew up in Magdalena, the son of alcoholic parents, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks with a kind heart.
One summer Grace came to visit her aunt Frances and an intense romance developed between Grace and Max.
Grace walked away from that summer romance determined to follow her life plan and not let Max be a distraction, however he was never far from her thoughts.
Fate and her Aunt’s final wishes would bring Grace back to Magdalena and in the path of the man she never quite forgot.
Grace’s life plan has fallen apart with the death of her husband a few years ago which left more questions and doubts than answers.
Now she is in Magdalena, forced to complete a list of 13 tasks in 30 days with Max, who has never quite forgiven Grace for walking away from him that summer years ago.
How did Max end up living in Aunt Frances’ house? Will Grace and Max get through the next 30 days without killing each other? Will past hurts resurface or will they remain buried?
You will have to read to find out!
A Family Affair – The Return also features Pete Finnegan and Elissa Cerdi from
A Family Affair – The Cabin. Are Pete and Elissa love gone right or love gone wrong? Will they get married or go their separate ways? Everyday life has a way of presenting challenges that cannot always be overcome. Are Pete and Elissa strong enough to see their love through?
Check out Mary’s That Second Chance and Reunion Gap series as well for more great reading and wonderful characters.
A copy of this book was provided to me by the author with no expectations or requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and my comments here are my honest and sincere opinion!

[Linda Gross · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Family Affair
The Return

Returning to the town of Magdalena is always a pleasure. This is a town that offers redemption, true friendship, appreciation for the simple life, and second chances. It is a town like any other.

But, Grace Romano Clark is reluctant to return even though the terms of Aunt Frances’ will say she must. She is scared that she will run into the boy who stole her heart when she was 17. The great love of her who she sent away in a dreadful altercation from the driveway of her home months later. Little does she know that boy grew up to be a very successful entrepreneur, so different from the teenager who loved her. And little does she know that she has to stay with that man in her aunt’s home for a month and work through a list that her aunt has left them.

The secrets that Grace Romano Clark and Max Ruhland hide from each other as they meet in Aunt Frances’ house. The Return follows them through those days. It aloes contains a story-within-a-story with what is happening with the previous book’s characters, Pete Finnegan and Elissa Cerdi.

I am a certified fan of Mary Campisi. I happened on her when her first A Family Affair appeared on BookBub. I have bought every book of hers since. Each is a beautiful story with well-developed characters and intricately wound story lines. I whole-heartedly recommend this book. You will enjoy it!

[Debbie Duncalf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Campisi, has long been one of my favourite authors. I discovered her around the time book #1 of this series was published and here we are on #13 already. I really enjoyed this story of Max and Grace along with Pete and Alyssa, two sets of couples who weave everything to fight for and even more to lose out on if they don't end up together.
Mary, you have such a great way of writing us beautiful stories about people whose lives intertwine from the past to the now present. Your books are full of love, romance and good advice from our Pop Benito, I love this charming man as if he were my own grandparent as he is very like mine was but without the Italian heritage. I had never heard of a pizelle before these books and now I just can't stop eating them.
Thanks for a great read!

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Campisi has done it again! This is the kind of town that I want to live in where everyone might seem to know everything about each other but there are still secrets to uncover. Also, lots of love, laughter and friendships to enrich your life. Her characters are so real it fels like you are visiting old friends. I love this series and hope that there are more stories to come!

A copy of this book was provided to me by the author with no expectations or requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and my comments here are my honest and sincere opinion

[Dawn Guidry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another enjoyable and eventful visit to Magdelena. I love coming back to this town as each installment of the series is published. Each couple has their ups and downs before finally settling into their happily-ever-after, and Max and Grace were no different. Another solid book in the series, as Ms. Campisi has me on pins and needles anxiously awaiting the next book after that epilogue.

[Debbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Campisi does it again. I love the people and the town of Magdelena. The stories give you hope that there are second chances and are good people who care about others. This story was not only about Grace and Max, Elissa and Peter also were dealing with some issues. I look forward to each new book in the series and the way this one ended, it's got a teaser for possibly the next one.

[Charlie Billings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Mary's stories

I chose a 5 because I love reading Mary's books. I have read all 13 of the Magdalena books, love the characters and feel a true sense of what family and home should be. Just wish more of life were truly like her stories! The only thing that is hard about her books is waiting for the next one to come out!

[Bette J Bold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read with very interesting characters. It was easy reading with many different people who had appeared in previous books of this series. The plot was intriguing and the main characters having had a long history. I liked the was the story evolved.

[Emilie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story!

Romeo and Juliet had nothing on the star-crossed lovers in this story. A twenty-two year separation did little to lessen their attraction (that
they fought). Mary Campisi pens a well written story of love past and present with memorable characters.

[Tracy Westmeier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cotton Candy

I'm a closet sap who loves the "happily ever after." As usual, Mary Campisi delivers. Thank you for the escape Mary.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book as much as the twelve before!!

Mary is my favorite author. I don't want the series to stop! I want more!!! Read the book in one day. I can't put her books down!

[Jilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoy books by Mary Campisi and I have read about 5 from this series. What I love about them is that whilst they are standalone stories they are set in the same place and although each book follows a different set of characters, other characters from other stories pop up regularly and you feel like you know them. They are easy to read, feel good stories. If you like family sagas, you will enjoy this series.

**********************************

Magdalena, New York, Home of memories long buried, steamy nights, and one regrettable summer…

Grace Romano had been seventeen, impressionable, innocent to the power of attraction and desire.

Max Ruhland taught her about both. He loved Grace and thought they had a future together, until she crushed his heart and told him he wasn’t part of her life plan.

Twenty-two years later, Grace Romano Clarke is a widow with two children and a pile of broken dreams. When her aunt dies, she must return to Magdalena, the town she’d rather forget, to honor the woman’s last stay in her house for thirty days, and complete a list that, according to her aunt, will reveal a bit about life and maybe reveal something about herself, too. What Grace doesn’t know but will find out soon enough is that Max Ruhland must stay in the house with her and help complete the list!

Max Ruhland isn’t the same lovesick puppy from the wrong side of the tracks who had his heart broken all those years ago. He’s a wealthy, successful businessman who owes his good fortune to Grace’s aunt, the woman who never gave up on him. Max can have any woman he wants, but he’s never forgotten Grace, or how she hurt him. Now he’ll have to spend the next thirty days with her—in close quarters—to honor her aunt’s last wishes, and he’s not looking forward to it.

It’s going to get very interesting as the town watches and wonders what’s going on between those two. Of course, Pop Benito understands exactly what’s happening in the house on Bayberry Street, even if Max and Grace don’t. He’s the one who helped Grace’s aunt create the thirty-day list, which he insists will finally get this couple their happily-ever-after!

[Char (1RadReader59) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grace Romano Clark has been sent a letter from her Aunt Frances, telling her that if she is reading it, it means she has passed on. She wants Grace to return to Magdalena, stay in her home for the next 30 days, and take her second chance at life by completing the challenges she has set for her. She is scared that she will run into the boy who stole her heart when she was 17. The great love of her life, whom she sent away in a dreadful altercation from the driveway of her home months later.

Little does she know that the boy grew up to be a very successful entrepreneur, so different from the teenager who loved her. And little does she know that she has to stay with that man in her aunt’s home for a month and work through a list that her aunt has left them. When they both meet at the lawyer's, she and Max are filled with dismay to see ‘the list of chores’ as they see it, and that they both have to live with each other at Aunt Frances’ home. Her aunt is trying to get them both to see that there should be no regrets.

Having them make amends, ask questions, and take chances on those things they were too afraid of before. This was a good story. I felt bad for Grace in the way her mother made her feel about her looks. And who she is as a woman. I especially hated the way Grace verbally attacked Max several times. In the end, they figured it out.

[Ann-marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with this series you are going to get heartbreak, heartwarming, conviction and lastly redemption. In this continuing series we meet Max and Grace(we met her in Second Chance: The Butterfly Garden)Three years later Grace is still adjusting to the death and betrayal of her husband. As she is contemplating her widow life along with her daughters she gets a message that her favorite aunt Francine has died and she needs to go back to Magdalena, NY for the reading of the will which has a specific instructions. We find out that before she was married she has teen love affair with Max a young man from the wrong side of the tracks. Both parents being alcoholics and practically abandoning him. Though his home life was not a happy one his special place was spending time that special summer with Grace. Although teenagers Max fell hard thinking there would be together only to have Grace shot him down and married someone else. Years later they come together for the reading of her aunt's will where they are both surprised by what she expects from the two of them. As stated Ms. Campisi novels opens a whole in the heart but healed with triumph.

[Barbara Hackel · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an interesting story! Parts of it were fascinating! The history of Max and Grace, their parting for 20 plus years and their reunion managed by a death wish of a woman who knew how the story was supposed to turn out. Then assumptions made after eavesdropping and running. This was a great story and I loved it.

However...

Along with what I love, I have to say that other parts of the book were confusing and uninteresting. Why did we have to read about a random person who coerced another random person into spreading poisoning ideas? And why was the reader exposed to a lover's conflict that made no sense?

This book would have been so much better if it were only about Grace and Max's story.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Mary Campisi takes us back to Magdalena to meet up with new and old friends, first we meet Grace and Max.. they first met as 17 yr olds in Magdalena but life had different journeys for them, but 21 years later and the death of grace's aunt they are brought back together in the most unusual way.
We also get to catch up with pop, lily and mimi just to name a few.
We get to catch up with Pete and Elissa 😀 Now that you have to read 😀

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip back to Magdalena so much I didn't want to leave 😀 I look forward to Mary Campisi's next book.

[Jacquelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘A Family Affair: The Return’ was appealing. The plot involved an unusual special request from a deceased aunt, a special blast from the past, adversity, reminiscing, checking in on minor characters (Pop Benito, Pete, and Elissa), close proximity, interesting family dynamics, having doubts, reading a journal, seeing the light, meeting the girls, and being in love. Also, Grace and Max, the protagonists, were ideally suited for each other. I kept rooting for them. Additionally, I appreciated the author’s vivid descriptions that created a somber tone. Overall, I liked the heartfelt narrative.

[sharon sobzak]

Enjoyable

Magdalena N.Y.is a town that likes to be involved in the residents personal lives. Some people even publicly expose this issues in the town paper. For another couple, twenty-two years after the end of their teenage love, her aunt and another senior resident make a plan to have them face a second chance.

[kay robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young couples love but she thought he wouldn't make a lasting marriage. Years later they meet .

They were young an in love but she was going to college an he wasn't sure what to do. As life goes on. Years later they meet again an have to spend time together to complete a last wish of her dead aunt will. See what happens.

[Cemaliye Nouri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book 3 ⭐️’s because there were a lot of grammatical errors in the book and I didn’t think that Grace should’ve been with Max in the end. She did not deserve a guy like him after what she did to him. What a horrible character she was. I wouldn’t recommend the book. The ending was predictable.

Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 2:45 PM

[Sue J · Rating 5 out of 5]

My happy ending

I loved Max’s and Grace’s story. It could have been mine if I had a Max. If I were not a Grace that never overcame fear as my default mode.
Thank you for a view of a road not traveled.

[Patsy Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story, well written. The only thing is I had not read all of the books before this one so sometimes I was a little lost as to who people were. Sometimes I wasn't sure I was reading the same book it switch between characters so much, it was very confusing for me.

[Lynn Mullan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read

[Lene E Laughner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful book. I loved it

[Angel Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good.

[norma sanchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was entertaining. Not the best book I've read. Too many stories in one short book.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. I’ll have to read the rest of the series.

[Lihsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very long expository paragraphs

To wordy. Long speeches. Unrealistic dialogue. It's an ok read. Kind of predictable. A good book to read before you go to sleep.

[Marcia Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyable love story

Predictable but an easy read and characters that you can relate to. A warm and cozy feel to an enjoyable book.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting characters and premise, but I just didn't connect with the overall story and writing.