If You Dare by Barbara Meyers – a Review

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Description:
Can a man evolve from arrogant ass to Father of the Year?

Doug Winston looks into his newborn daughter’s eyes and vows to become the kind of man and father worthy of her. But he first must navigate the mess he’s made of his life.

Doug’s wife has left him. The teenage son he raised despises him, the father he worships disowns him, and a child Doug never knew he’d fathered arrives on his doorstep.

After his baby’s mother dies, her sister, Josie, wants to prove him unfit and attain custody.

As Doug embarks on his quest to live authentically, to make amends where he can and build relationships with his children and with Josie, he discovers that the father for whom he was never good enough is part of a vast criminal network.

Just as Doug and Josie cross the line from hate to love, and Doug has cobbled together the family he always wanted, can he bring the man he once idolized to justice in order to protect them all?

Review:

Doug didn’t have friends.  He had acquaintances.  Business associates.  He’d lived his whole life in this town yet he’d never developed the sort of personal relationships others managed so easily.  He couldn’t think of one person he could call who would be there for him no questions asked.  God, he had to stop thinking about everything he’d done wrong or else he’d end up drowning.  He needed to focus on trying to do things right from now on.

I’m rather surprised Doug was chosen for the spin-off, on account of being a user-manipulator, but people love redemption arcs, don’t they?  If You Dare is the aptly named sequel by Barbara Meyers.  Doug was a villainous character from book 1 who was handed his just desserts, but the death of his lover, leaving him to raise his infant daughter alone, would bring anyone to their knees from the fallout.  Can Doug reinvent himself?

A continued compliment to Ms. Meyers for her writing prowess.  While doing nothing more than depicting the frenetic details of Doug’s sudden catapult into fatherhood, the writing of ordinary sounds are keen and poignant; engaging and fresh, as always.  I felt like a true fly on the wall, forehead slaps aplenty, agog with this-shouldn’t-be-new-to-you-Miles’-father!, but committed to reading the journey I was on, because the writing was so good!  This was the energy she had in the introductory novel, so just kudos to you for keeping me interested, despite the flawed subject.

Keeping me interested — the plot thickens!  When it rains in Red Bud, Iowa, it’s a deluge.  Doug’s past rears its ugly head yet again and demands he step up to meet the challenge.  Forced to grapple with his selfish behavior, we are treated to the reckoning.  It is this introspection, this insight into Doug’s self-recrimination that allows us to heal alongside him.  Because let me tell you:  that initial silent acknowledgement of Josie’s attractiveness rattled my cage – did he learn nothing?!  Who’s Josie?  The ex-lover’s cousin with a whole lot of judgment to heap upon Doug.  Not a spoiler (it’s in the synopsis) and never a worry, Ms. Meyers reeled Doug back in with a crisis of conscience tug.  The evolution of said relationship is much more palatable.  Dare I say, understandable.

Suffice it to say, the aforementioned plot twist is only one of several subplots to keep you affixed.  About 10 chapters in, I did miss the previous main characters.  Ever the diligent writer, they eventually engaged, albeit briefly.  If Doug’s transformation was to be accepted, he had to confront the disasters he created, to justify our reassessment.  Again, the ability to dovetail Doug from insolent to human was heartfelt and believable.

Just when things finally make sense, life in check and love in surplus, the fear of losing it takes on new meaning.  Look at me going on and on.  Read for yourselves and tell me this wasn’t almost better than the first!  Either way, we all win.  I’m ready for your next book, 😉 

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy supplied for review