"Unexpected Family" by Jill Kemerer

About the Book

His Surprise Daughter 

After five years apart, Tom Sheffield is shocked to find his ex-wife, Stephanie, on his doorstep. The news that they share a child he's never met sends him reeling. Four-year-old Macy has his eyes, his mouth and, from their first encounter, his heart. Things with her mother are much more complicated. He doesn't understand what went wrong between them or why she kept their daughter a secret. And he's afraid of falling in love all over again. Yet he feels a glimmer of hope that somehow he can convince Macy and Stephanie to stay in Lake Endwell—and with him—for keeps.

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This book was released in September 2015

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review

My Review

“Unexpected Family” by Jill Kemerer is another wonderful Sheffield sibling story and though there isn't the laughter moments like with “Small-Town Bachelor” but this was just as wonderful in its own very special way. With this book the emotions is not laughter but heartache and fear. I think it is something wonderful when an author can write two completely different stories and pull something completely different emotion wise from the same reader.

As I said, this is a story that is full of fear, but not fear like some kind of horror that is going to jump out any moment on a page, but it is a fear of repeating past mistakes, fear of the consequences, fear of the unknown when things turn upside down and fear of emotions. Then there is the heartache that happens with when confronting the past that hasn't had full closure, heartache when one knows they did something wrong, and heartache of believing one thing painful. But above all those emotions there is hope. Hope of overcoming the wrongs of the past, hope of trying to make everything work and hope of something more.

Tom Sheffield is a man who is finally trying to do something for himself when suddenly his whole world is turned upside down when he is told that he has a child. How he handles everything truly shows what is important to him. He knows where he has made mistakes and wonders if things could be different. Tom is a hard working man without a doubt and is willing to listen to suggestions. Now he is older and is willing to make comprises to make what is important to him finally happen.

Stephanie is a young woman who has made some whopper of mistakes but the biggest one seems to be her unwillingness to let go of the past. She has grown and changed too for she is juggling so many things now because of her choices. There are things that Stephanie has done that she is righting now, and somethings that frankly will have to just have to go. There are things she wants for her future, but she is not so set in her own ways that she can't see other ways of doing things.

Then there is little Macy who frankly I just loved for she was so realistic for her age. Her whole mannerism when confronted with something she didn't like spoke well of her age, and I have to say that it was amazing that Ms. Kemerer really captured a stubborn, adorable, knowing of her own mind child. I would swear Ms. Kemerer knew my own child when they were the same age as Macy.

Things may not have moved as quickly as in her first book, but then again this is dealing with something completely different. The forward movement of this book is more of baby steps, but those steps were so incredibly important. Those baby steps show how much growth has actually happened, where mistakes were made before and what dreams are there now. Even though it was all baby steps it was so hard for me to put down the book for I just needed to know what was going to come out next.

The characters are written with such depth that it is so hard not to place oneself in their shoes, to hurt when they are hurting and to feel the frustration that they feel. The conflict of the story is so part of today's world with so many people, that the conflict didn't feel forced, dragged out or anything but a natural flowing conflict. Sometimes this type of a conflict can feel just a little off somehow but not this time.

I truly hope all that who pick up this book will enjoy it as much as I did. I received a Kindle version of this wonderful book for free in exchange for an honest review which this is.