Kevin Alan Milne

The premise is simple enough. One good deed leads to another. But what happens when those good deeds make the ones nearest you doubt everything they know and love about you? Nathan Steen has spent a great deal of his life trying to do good for others. His deeds are symbolized by tiny stones carried in his pocket. After his death secrets come to light that makes his family question all they knew about the man. Kevin Milne weaves a story that will tug at your heartstrings and leave you thinking about how far you would go to do "one good deed".
… (meer)

The story line really caught my eye. A cynical lead character who has lost those she loved all grown up with a chocolate shop in Gig Harbor Washington. Lots of nice NW references that make me miss the place even more. Anyway, her wicked wit is served up in fortune cookies that are dipped in unsweetened cocoa and have handwritten "misfortunes" in them. The lost love returns to try to explain why he dumped her a week, A WEEK, before their wedding but she resists him with a challenge. Nice little book of miscommunications, misplaced guilt, and realistic characters.… (meer)

It's well enough written, but I kept waiting for it to be a story I wanted to read. It has all the elements of a delightful, magical tale: romance, cooking, chocolate. But alas, instead it's entirely consumed by guilt and tragedy, tragedy and guilt. Blah. At first I also found it completely unbelievable that the main character would be willing to talk to the person who jilted her the week before her wedding. That's before I realized that the entire romance before the wedding culminated in nothing more than a perfectly chaste kiss and a proposal. How incredibly boring.… (meer)