Finding Freedom [Kindle Edition]

Betty Jo Schuler's strength as a writer is her ability to develop real, likable but flawed characters, who go through needed changes to find happiness. Although I think LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN was better, this one is good, too. In fact, it got better and better the farther I read.

Nick Dennis was a free-spirited mystery writer, who was trying to write a romance novel to win a bet but was hitting a brick wall with it. He was a wanderer, who was afraid to make commitments because of his mother's desertion when he was young. Celeste Harte had been hurt by her husband's infidelity, which she discovered had never ended only after his death two years ago. She'd always met the expectations of others but wants a romantic man in her life. The cover is all wrong, because Celeste is a light brown-haired beauty, and Nick's a blond.

I thought this novel also had more errors than LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN. Pronouns are misused, as in "...to see more of you and I." It has missing commas, needs italics for thoughts, end of sentence periods are not always there, and "An" was used for "And."

The book opens talking about orgasms as Celeste celebrates her 29th birthday. The very first part also reads like much of it is missing. It jumps around leaving large gaps, which is confusing at first. Even more of the opening is like a fantasy. It doesn't feel real or seem how people would really act for more than a day. If it had been clearer that everything Nick was doing was to see how Celeste reacted for his novel, it would have made more sense, but this was only mentioned to explain why he wanted to get to know her, but not in their day to day relationship. And, if he were really trying to understand her, wouldn't he have wanted to know her background? This one also contains more explicit sex. It bothered me at first, but after they began to care for each other, and the scenes became less descriptive, it wasn't quite as bad.

I would have only given the first few chapters a two, and I almost put the novel down because of them. Most of the book would've been a five, however, so I ended up liking the book.

Finding Freedom is an endearing romance, full of humor as well as heartwarming and touching moments. The characters come across as real--likeable, but not perfect. Betty Jo Schuler's writing has a pace and dialogue which move this story along so nicely. Definitely a fun read!