The back cover of A Mom for Matthew mentions that the heroine is searching for a long-lost plane from World War II. That sounded intriguing enough for me to ignore the title and the sad-eyed child on the front cover, two factors that would usually lead me to give it a wide berth, and check out the book. I should have known that part of the story would turn out to be much less interesting than it sounded. Surprisingly enough, the drama surrounding the sad-eyed child is actually its strongest element. Too bad the romance is anything but super.

Zeke Rossetti is a single father with a lot on his plate. His young son Matthew is deaf and constantly suffers from pain that leaves Zeke helpless to comfort the boy. Zeke’s wife abandoned them after Matthew was born and only reappears to threaten a custody battle when she needs money. A pushy social worker wants to take Matthew away and send him to special school for deaf children in Florida, claiming it would be in the boy’s best interest. Meanwhile, Zeke’s mother Celia, who takes care of Matthew during the day, has health problems of her own.

With so much to deal with in his personal life, the last thing he needs is trouble at work. Zeke works for Kemper Oil, managing the company’s off-shore oil drills in Galveston, Texas. One day he discovers their latest drilling operation is being jeopardized by a woman diving at their next planned drill site.

Grace Stafford is a schoolteacher using her summer break to search for the plane her grandfather flew in World War II. He disappeared during the war and was long labeled a deserter. Grace’s grandmother spent years fighting the Navy to have her husband’s good name restored. With her grandmother seriously ill, Grace wants to find the plane and prove her grandfather was no coward. She believes she’s narrowed down the area where the plane likely crashed. There’s no way she’s going to stop her search until she’s found out one way or another. Zeke finally joins her search, in hopes of hurrying her along so the drilling can commence.

The book doesn’t get off to the strongest start. Frankly, I wasn’t sure I’d make it through the first paragraph, let alone the first chapter. The backstory is handled lazily, as the author drops the exposition in chunks that felt awkward and made for slow going. After all the backstory is covered, the writing thankfully improves, and for the most part, the rest of the book is sharply written.

The search to find the plane is underwhelming. The author doesn’t go into much detail about what it involves, so it doesn’t amount to much. There’s no emotional impact to the search. The ending in particular is very rushed, glossing over what it all means. The author spends much more time on the subplot with Matthew’s difficulties. Fortunately, this is a much more effective storyline. Here the author does go into detail about Matthew’s medical problems and the avenues Zeke can pursue in trying to help his son. It’s interesting and believable in a way the plane search usually isn’t. Matthew himself isn’t a huge part of the book, but there are some touching scenes and cute moments. None of the characters are particularly deep, but Zeke is mostly sympathetic as a single father who loves his son, even if the evil, moneygrubbing ex-wife is painfully cliche. Still, Zeke’s struggle to do what’s best for his Matthew is the most developed and convincing part of the book.

On the other hand, the love story is neither. It’s little more than a string of misunderstandings and missed moments stretched out to 300 pages. The characters continually misread each others’ reactions and intentions throughout the book, and their bickering grew tiresome fast. For the thinnest of reasons, Zeke avoids telling Grace about his mother and Matthew, which seemed like an obvious setup for a stupid misunderstanding to eventually occur. Sure enough, said stupid misunderstanding arrived right on schedule, and was just as annoying as expected. It’s one convoluted misunderstanding after another right up to the end. The ending is very sweet, but this is one of those books where the happy ending fails to convince because there’s no reason to believe the characters won’t have another misunderstanding five seconds after the book’s over.

A Mom for Matthew is an interesting story about a single father coping with a deaf child. Unfortunately it also features an annoying love story and a promising subplot that falls short. In the end, it’s an okay read and not much more.