A review by rebroxannape
Waiting On You by Kristan Higgins

4.0

Regrettably, to be fair to her other books which I enjoyed more, I'll have to give this one a 3. It had all the prerequisite Kristan Higginsisms. I really liked the hero and heroine (eventhough she was quite overbearing and full of herself), though they were more typical in their ways than some of her characters from other books. Funny scenes? check. but somehow, not laugh out loud funny. Touching situations? check. But not enough to bring tears to my eyes (much). Nice people are rewarded and Mean people get their comeuppance, but did not suffer quite enough. It would have been a 4 but for 2 very annoying characters: Bryce, the hero Lucas's brother, was just too stupid: and not in a funny way, but in a way that did real harm to those I really liked. The second was Colleen's mother. She provided some comic relief, but her overarching weakness was just a pall on the book. The third thing was that the reader was teased throughout the book about the identity of her twin Connor's new girlfriend,

Spoiler

but the mystery is never answered. Kind of a cheat.

Likely the 4th Blue Heron will delve into that, which would be perfectly fine with me.
****revised review*****04/08/2017. some of my complete opposite reactions on this read might be to the fact that I listened to this one on audible rather than read it. This one had a lot more heartache and tragic situations than many of her books.

Spoiler

Lucas' Dad, his treatment from his aunt, his aunts treatment of her husband Joe, Colleen's heartbreak. Even Ellen's unrequited love for her husband and loss of the baby, Colleen's dad's rejection of his children by his first wife, Gail's treatment of her daughter Savannah (redeemed near the end), Gramps, Brice's eulogy for his father, Joe's death. There's more. But it had it's share of triumphs and laughs as well. Evil villains are really evil, and other evil villains (Savannah's mother) are not as evil as you think.

Tears were shed, throat was aching, and the snorts of laughter were many. Some things did get tedious and trite: "Mia" and "Spaniard" nicknames, "sphincter", Brice's surfer vocabulary: Dude! Word!, the repetitive descriptions of Colleen and Lucas's sexual attraction, for example. Since I now know the out come of Connor's story, in one of her best books, the 5th Blue heron, which run's semi-concurrently with this one, the main reason for my 3 star rating is removed. So almost a 4 star this time around.