Everything At Last by Kimberly Lang – Review, Guest Post & Giveaway
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Description:
At first sight, Molly Richards knew Magnolia Beach, Alabama, was the perfect place to escape her unhappy life. And though she’s proud of the small coffee shop she’s opened, something is missing. But she won’t let herself be burned by love—again.
Veterinarian Tate Harris finds the local dating scene awkward, since he’s known most of the eligible ladies his whole life. But he’s finding it hard to resist the unassuming charm of the sweet-faced owner of Latte Dah. And when a late-night pet emergency finds Tate at Molly’s house, that fascination turns into a potent mutual attraction.
But just as their relationship begins to take off, Molly’s haunted past returns. Fortunately, Tate is determined to help Molly fight for the life she’s been wishing for…
Review:
Everything at Last by Kimberly Lang is the 2nd book in her Magnolia Beach series. Our hero is Tate Harris, whom we met in the first book, Something to Prove. Tate is the town veterinarian, a far cry from the young wild boy who ran the town ragged with Helena as teenagers. Helena was our first book heroine, and remains best friends with Tate, as well as with Molly Richards, our heroine.
Molly runs the local coffee shop, and is happy that she found Magnolia Beach three years before. What people don’t know is that Molly ran away from an unhappy and abusive relationship, and is always on guard that her ex will find her.
Helena tries to push her best friends to get together, only to create some unintended bad feelings. Because Molly is forced to take over running the annual charity event, her and Tate begin working together. This is a slow build romance, with them both starting off as only friends. Tate is busy in his life, and always worrying about his sisters, he doesn’t have or want to be involved in a relationship. In this case, neither does Molly, who has a past that haunts her. But despite their determination to stay only as friends, best laid plans do not always work out.
I do not want to give spoilers, but this was a sweet romance between two people whose hearts are buried deep. It is Molly’s past that will come forth to possibly destroy this budding romance. Magnolia Beach is a small town, and secrets do tend to be not private anymore. But what are small towns for, other than helping one of their own, which is always fun. Helena and others will play a big part to fight to bring Tate and Molly together. But first Molly must reveal her past, get help to move forward and Tate must also open his heart.
Everything at Last was a very good story, though I did feel the first book was better, but that could be due to the wonderful Helena. Kimberly Lang does a good job in making us part of Magnolia Beach. I suggest you start with the first book, though this could be read very well as a standalone.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
One of the questions I get asked a lot is “Are your characters based on real people?” The short answer is “no.” The slightly longer answer is “Not in any specific way, because everything is inspired by something, somewhere, and it all gets mixed together.” Friends and family are the worst about finding themselves in a character. I’ve gotten emails from people insisting that some event is totally about them or wondering why I put cousin Joe in the book but not them.
But it’s always a surprise to me that they see it that way. Sure, there might be a nod here or there, but as the disclaimer in the front of the book says, it’s all the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to them is simply the byproduct of their own guilty consciences.
For the first time, though, I have to say yes, I do have a character inspired by and named after someone in my past. It’s Nigel, the feline companion to Molly, the heroine of Everything at Last.
Fictional Nigel is a grumpy, possessive kitty, very in tune with Molly’s emotions and the center of her universe. He also doesn’t like the hero, Tate, very much. He’s fluffy and soft and gray. And did I mention he’s grumpy?
Real Nigel was also fluffy, soft, gray, and pretty darn grumpy. His human, Rebecca, let me move in for a couple of months, and Real Nigel only tolerated me slightly better than Fictional Nigel tolerates Tate. Rebecca had a table with a long tablecloth in the hallway that I called Nigel’s Lair, and I learned very quickly to veer widely around it if I liked my ankles unattacked. But Nigel loved Rebecca, and Rebecca loved Nigel. He’d lay in her lap, legs akimbo, for belly rubs while we watched TV, and he would shoot me dirty looks if I got too close to Rebecca. One night, Nigel was giving me the hairy eyeball from across the room, so I intentionally cuddled up close to Rebecca on the couch. His reaction was quite amusing, and we had a good laugh — as soon as I finished bandaging the scratch marks on my arms.
In a way, his grumpiness was part of his charm, and I fell a little in love with him, too. About the time I moved out — probably because he knew I was about to move out — Nigel finally warmed up to me a little and would let me pet him if Rebecca wasn’t around.
The first mention of Molly’s cat is in the first Magnolia Beach book, Something to Prove. He had a different name because I hadn’t thought that much about him. As I started writing Everything at Last, and Molly’s cat was developing a personality, I realized I’d been basing him on Nigel. I decided I might as well go all the way and name him Nigel, too. Thankfully, I was able to change the cat’s name in the final set of revisions of Something to Prove, a move which had to have confused the copyeditors but was really important to me. (Thanks, copyeditors!)
So, yes, y’all, there was a real Nigel. A beautiful fluffy gray cat with a bad attitude but great loyalty and pretty decent aim when going for your ankles. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of Nigel — cell phones were brand-new back then and didn’t have cameras — but just know that he was beautiful (and he knew it), and that he was simply awesome.
And now everyone knows that.
An excerpt starring Nigel:
Nigel, bored now with the laser pointer, jumped into her lap and swatted at her hand until she put the pointer down and scratched him under the chin instead. His loud purr rumbled against her thighs as he rolled to his back.
As she rubbed the soft hair on his belly, she gave herself one full minute to hate Mark David Lane with every fiber of her being, but she only allowed only five seconds of self-recrimination for marrying him in the first place. She used the next couple of minutes as she always did any time she dealt with anyone in her family: breathing deeply and searching for calm acceptance and strength.
She never quite managed to find it, but at least she searched.
Her phone chimed to let her know that Hannah had left a voice mail that she had zero intention of listening to, ever. Her therapist had told her to limit contact with her family and to only accept only on her terms, if she decided to accept at all. She’d been bad about setting that boundary in the past, but now . . . “I think the new terms should go into effect immediately. Right, Nigel?”
Nigel purred, so she took that as a yes.
Anything important she really needed to know—and she had yet to decide what that might actually be—would get to her through the few friends she had left.
Mark’s numbers were simply blocked from her phone and all his email was sorted directly to trash and deleted unread by the miracle of modern technology.
Anything he needed to tell her could go through her lawyer.
“Maybe I am spiteful and petty,” she told Nigel. “But I’m happier this way.”
She had the music she liked playing, a decent buzz going, and a kitty in her lap. Overall, life didn’t suck.
So, of course, someone had to knock on her door.
Leaving her wine glass balanced on the arm of the couch, she scooped Nigel into her arms and took him with her to the door.
Tate Harris was the last person she expected to find on her porch, but there he was. She blinked, wondering if whether she’d had more wine than she’d thought.
“Hi, Molly. Sorry to bother you, but—”
Nigel hissed and leapt from her arms, leaving a scratch on the back of her hand from his claws. The force of his leap caused her to sway in her slightly legless state, and she reached for the door frame to steady herself.
Within seconds, she could hear ominous noises coming from under the couch. Molly was speechless. Granted, Nigel wasn’t the most friendly of cats to begin with, and he actively disliked trips to the vet’s office, but he wasn’t usually like this at home, even when people came by. She rubbed the scratch on her hand. He’d drawn blood. “I don’t know what’s gotten into that cat.”
Tate merely laughed. “Occupational hazard. Dude,” he said in the general direction of the couch, “you can only be neutered once, you know.”
Kimberly Lang’s publisher is offering a paper copy of EVERYTHING AT LAST to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.
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