Shopping for Love [Kindle Edition]

I have read Ms Sofras' previous books and as always, she delivers a well-crafted, intelligent and humurous story with a clever plot and realistic characters. The protagonists, Greg and Emma, are two lovely, caring human beings who seem to be made for each other, but there are obstacles that make it hard for them to find a common ground for their blossoming relationship. Greg's ex-wife is a manipulating, false **** who would do anything to destroy his chance to find happiness (although she has married again), even using the children to get her way. Sofras writes romances to sigh for, but this is a female villain to "hate for". Emma's past (mostly in the form of her ex-boyfriend) gets in her way, too, and what's even worse, she finds out that she is the teacher of Greg's children. She doesn't want them to suffer, but soon even her job is endangered. I loved how the author manages to entangle all that conflict - she makes the characters grow and encloses sweet moments of romance and passion. A great read for everyone who believes that love will prevail!

Rather than tell the plot of the story here, I think I will just say that Ms Sofras' story-telling is masterful. I love the way she makes the characters believable and 'normal'. The dialogues are smooth and natural and it is still a pleasure to have the sex scenes left to the imagination. There is absolutely no need to have the torrid and sometimes embarrassing scenes spelt out to the adult reader; most of us are capable of imagining. The story flows effortlessly along and you get swept up into the tide of emotions. I am not easily pleased by novels and I think I am quite hard on the writers, but I have yet to read one of Ms Sofras' novels and not like it - it is clear that to be able to write so fluently, somewhere along the line, she must have experienced the day to day turmoils of this couple and their respective ex's! There is humour as well as raw emotion and the scenes between Greg's father and grandfather brought a tear to my eye - for me, that means it is a great book! Please keep on writing - you have a great talent.

When Greg meets Emma choosing tomatoes in the supermarket it is love at first sight. But the course of true love never runs smooth. What looks like an easy relationship between two free agents quickly becomes a nightmare when Emma realises that Greg is the father of one of her pupils. Then Emma's appalling ex-boyfriend reappears and tries to take over where he left off before he deserted her. Then Greg's ex-wife dumps the children on him and starts making all sorts of unreasonable demands. Despite having left Greg for another man, she is jealous when she finds out about Emma and reports her to her employer for having an inappropriate relationship with a parent. Add to the mix that Greg uncovers some skulduggery at his place of work and that Emma's ex-boyfriend keeps trying to involve him in some very dubious business deals and you begin to wonder whether the new romance has any chance of getting off the ground. How could anything with such an unpromising beginning have a happy ending?
This is Lynette Sofras' third novel and it is another winner. Her romances are beautifully-written, the language is fluent (and grammatically-correct - so rare these days!) the characters are well-drawn and the plot has such depth and variety that the reader is hooked from the first page. I love Ms Sofras' villains. I want to find them and strangle them before they spoil everything. It is so nice to read romance that has so much more to offer than the usual boy meets girl, a misunderstanding arises, it is all cleared up and everyone lives happily ever after.
Ms Sofras has everything it takes to be a best-selling author. I shall watch her career with interest and look forward immensely to her next novel. Keep writing!