Wylie’s new Harlequin release delivers exactly what it promises. It’s a sweet love story, and while it’s not particularly fast-paced, it allows the reader to get to know the characters and their stories. Abbey is on the verge of getting engaged, but she knows that before she can agree to such a serious commitment, she has to take care of the little issue of her husband. She got married in America eight years ago during a whirlwind summer romance, but she hasn’t heard from her husband since he dropped her off at the airport just after the wedding so she could fly back to Ireland to wait for him.

A combination of her pride and the fact that her father became seriously ill upon her return prevented Abbey from seeking out her errant husband. She’s tried to put the past behind her and make a successful life for herself, and she knows that confronting her past is the only way she will really be able to move on.

Ethan, a chopper pilot in the U.S. Army, is completely taken aback by the arrival of a letter from Ireland from a woman claiming to be his wife and asking for a divorce. Eight years ago, Ethan and his best friend Jamie were in a major car accident near Las Vegas. Ethan was in a coma for weeks and eventually came out of it, but lost six months of his memory, while Jamie didn’t survive the crash. Ethan travels to Ireland to see who this woman is, and when he recognizes her as the “A.J.” from a photo he’s been carrying around since the summer of the accident, he realizes what must have happened. Although his story sounds farfetched, he convinces Abbey that he’s telling the truth. The two of them start spending time together, ostensibly so that she can fill him in on the missing months, but it soon becomes clear that the two of them are rekindling the feelings they used to share.

While the story is fairly predictable, it’s very sweet and we get to watch the couple grow and their love strengthen as they resolve the issues that have kept them apart. Wylie is adept at writing believable characters, and she shows much more than she tells.

The book’s flaw is in the form of Amy, Ethan’s friend from American, who makes the trip with him to Ireland. She’s a plot device, the Big Misunderstanding – and isn’t essential to the story. Her role would have been just as effective if she had called on the phone when Abbey was there, or if Ethan had received a message from her in front of Abbey. Besides, the misunderstanding is not the important conflict of the story; rather, it’s the developing relationship of two people who married once for love and are finding out if it is possible to regain that feeling.

The plot is similar to a marriage of convenience, in that the outcome of marriage is predetermined and all that’s left to sort out is the actual relationship, but it’s also much sweeter since they originally did marry for love, rather than money, and because Abbey finds out that Ethan didn’t cruelly abandon her, as she had believed for the past eight years. Apart from Amy, the secondary characters are strong. Abbey’s boyfriend Paul is a likable, sympathetic character and he would make a worthy contender for Abbey’s heart if she hadn’t already given it away. Karyn, Abbey’s best friend, is supportive of Abbey although the two of them are different in many ways. Finally, Abbey has a rocky relationship with her mother, whom she has always seen as controlling and overbearing, but it isn’t until Ethan convinces her to see her mother as an individual with her own personality that Abbey and her mother can begin to grow closer.

Since the book takes place in a tiny Irish town and the author is Irish, I would have enjoyed a less generic tone, especially in dialogue. Overall, though, I enjoyed the story and believed in Abbey and Ethan’s relationship and their love for each other.