Love, Family, Dysfunction

TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE. 

Hi, it's me back with another romance.  I know, I know.  I need to get off of this kick. Like I've said though, the muse takes you where the muse will take you.  Anyhoo, When I Found You by Brenda Novak was a new one for me, that is, it's the first book by this author I've ever read.

Characters: Natasha Gray, the Amos Family (more prominently Mack, though his brothers Grady, Dylan, Aaron, and Rod are secondary characters.)

Premise: A divorcee starts over in her old hometown and finds love.

To be honest, I'm not sure where to start with this one.  It started out normally and then it went into soap opera territory.  Natasha Gray is starting her life over with her son Lucas after getting divorced from her husband Ace (yes, that's actually his name) and losing her pediatrician practice after discovering that the nurse she had hired had been harming patients in order to save them, resulting in a child's death (Munchausen's by Proxy). Natasha is helped out financially by Mack Amos, a former childhood friend who was also an ex-stepbrother (Her mom and the Amos family's dad had been married briefly).  The usual tropes were there: Natasha and Mack were both gun-shy when it came to love, Natasha's a single mother (since newly divorced) and having trouble with her ex who relies on his rich parents for his money while he just played video games all day.

As the book progresses, we're introduced to Mack's brothers Grady, Aaron, Dylan, Rod, and their families.  As it turns out, Natasha was sixteen when she first meets the Amos siblings and Aaron, Rod, Grady, and Dylan warn Mack off when it first looks like there's attraction on Natasha's part---which, fair, she's underage, and she flirted with Mack and threw herself at him hard----but having them continue to warn him off after she came of age felt controlling and toxic to me.

Throughout the story, there's lots of mention of the Amos patriarch's---J.T.'s---breakdown after the death of his first wife who killed herself. While I applaud Brenda Novak's willingness to tackle this subject, I wish she had gone deeper into how this affected the family, especially the kids, and how the desire to commit suicide can come from depression and/or other mental health issues.

And as if this isn't enough to deal with, Dylan finds out that his son Kellan isn't actually his. (Honestly, this is where I feel that the book went off the rails) Turns out he was shooting blanks so his wife and his brother Aaron (with the blessing of Aaron's wife Presley) decided to do artificial insemination and they each "contributed" in separate rooms, and voila, kiddo.  I wish I was making this up, but alas, I am not, and thus, we entered Dallas territory, especially when Ace starts doubting the validity of his paternity to Lucas, though a paternity test proved that he was in fact, the father.

To contribute to the craziness, J.T. gets shot, everyone thinks it's Natasha's mother who pulled the trigger, but it turned out to be the husband of the woman he was having an affair with.  Again, Dallas territory.  It was an okay read.  Interesting premise, craziness aside, but honestly, I felt like the author had too much going on, and so I'd only give it a 4.