Rachel Gibson is an auto buy for me.  Sometimes her books hit that mark that leaves all the others in the dust (TRUE CONFESSIONS and IT MUST BE LOVE for me) and sometimes they don’t.  They all, however, are on my keeper shelf due to the rich characters and interesting emotions they are put through. 

With DAISY’S BACK IN TOWN, we have a woman who has kept a secret for fifteen years and must deal with the consequences of her actions.  Daisy Lee Monroe, from Lovett, Texas, has come back to tell Jack Parrish what she should have told him fifteen years ago: that he is the father of her son, Nathan.  

Let’s get to the background basics.  Daisy, Jack, and Steven had been best friends growing up all through school.  Somewhere along the lines, friendship had turned to love for all three.  Daisy loved Steven, but in a different way that the way she loved Jack.  With Jack, she discovered passion and love, and heartbreak.  They had kept their love from Steven, a secret.  When Jack’s parents were killed in a car wreck, Daisy was clinging to him, draining him, he decides to cool it a bit, telling her they needed a break.  Well, Daisy felt that he didn’t love her anymore, and considering the fact that she was pregnant, turned to Steven for help.  Marrying Steven, leaving for Seattle and raising Nathan away from his real father was something Daisy and Steven had to live with.  When Steven died, Daisy returned to tell Jack the truth. 

Jack, of course, is mad at Daisy for ever coming back.  Her betrayal has sunk in places and stayed there festering like a boil.  He’s resentful and bitter, but he can’t deny that he still wants her, and with her eager responses to his passionate demands, he could tell she still wanted him.  But what happens to his life when he discovers the truth?  Can he forgive Daisy and Steven for their betrayal years ago? 

I had read some pretty disparaging remarks about this book before I read it.  That didn’t stop me, though, since I am a true blue Rachel Gibson fan.  Gibson has a way of writing about feelings, even though the situations might not be ideal, they sure seem like something that could happen in real life.  I could easily understand how Daisy married Steven.  She was in high school, pregnant and scared.  Jack, is a man I could easily falling love with myself.  I could sympathize with Jack and his anger at knowing he had a son he had been cheated out of for fifteen years.  He has a lot of issues to deal with, but overall, I loved how he turned out.  He tries at first to keep her at arms length, but once he realizes that is not likely to happen and he finds out he has a son, Jack begins to take on a whole new look.  He’s hurt, but he also allows himself to feel again, which I think is great for a hero.  

Gibson writes emotions so clearly, that I could see both sides of the stories.  These aren’t flat, one dimensional characters, here.  I also loved how Nathan tries to cope with the loss of the dad he knew, and trying to get to know his real father, and trying to fit in among his uncertainty about life in general.  Sometimes I think people forget to read for entertainment and the pure enjoyment of a story.  I laughed out loud in several places, and I think I fell in love a little with Jack myself a time or two (especially the water hose scene).  Romantic and satisfying, I savored every word of DAISY’S BACK IN TOWN.