What do you think?
Rate this book
Together Again #1
The Husband Lesson
There's been a mistake!
Karan Reece has no other explanation for this situation. Being assigned to work with her ex-husband, Dr. Charles Steinberg? She really must have offended someone to be forced to spend her days with him. The only good thing she can say is at least this arrangement has an expiration date.
Funny thing, though, is that working together for a shared cause forces them to look at each other differently. She's learning a lot about him and his strengths. And those discoveries are causing her to see him in a new way…a very attractive, can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-you way. Seems that life with Charles is a lesson she's willing to study again!
Karan Reece has no other explanation for this situation. Being assigned to work with her ex-husband, Dr. Charles Steinberg? She really must have offended someone to be forced to spend her days with him. The only good thing she can say is at least this arrangement has an expiration date.
Funny thing, though, is that working together for a shared cause forces them to look at each other differently. She's learning a lot about him and his strengths. And those discoveries are causing her to see him in a new way…a very attractive, can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-you way. Seems that life with Charles is a lesson she's willing to study again!
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 2011
About the author
Jeanie London
74 books12 followersJeanie London has had a head filled with characters for as long as she can remember. She completed her very first novel when she was just eleven--200 handwritten pages spanning several composition notebooks. School years were spent sneaking romances into school when she should have been learning algebra and biology. College years were spent taking all sorts of electives, like journalism and fiction writing classes, when she should have been taking algebra and biology. Nowadays, Jeanie is still reading and writing romances because she believes in happily-ever-afters. Not the "love conquers all" kind, but the "two people love each other, so they can conquer anything" kind.
Visit Jeanie at http://www.jeanielondon.com. She's very social and loves to meet others who believe in happily ever afters, too.
==The Best Reviews
Visit Jeanie at http://www.jeanielondon.com. She's very social and loves to meet others who believe in happily ever afters, too.
==The Best Reviews
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 26, 2017
Real people, real problems. A badly broken marriage. Misconceptions, misunderstandings and lack of communication. Fate decided to challenge all of this by forcing Karan and Charles to revisit their past. Having been charged with drunk driving (Karan has issues with low blood sugar and just a zip of alcohol might give the wrong impression), Karan was sentenced to community service at the shelter where her doctor ex-husband volunteered. Second chance romances when done well are a treat. I enjoyed every minute of this book.
Karan irritated me at the start of the story. A rich girl with two ex-husbands, self absorbed and apparently oblivious to consequences product of her negligence or reckless behaviour. 'Death didn't touch Karan's world. Nothing did. Everything skimmed right across the surface. She didn't deal with death. If she didn't like the headlines in the newspaper, she cancelled the subscription. If she didn't like the tragedy blasting sound bites, she turned off the television. Karan didn't deal in real life. Only in indulgence. In the things that didn't make it a bit of difference. I believed Charles' opinion of his ex-wife. I was on Charles' side.
But Karan wasn't the person Charles and I thought. Or the person Charles chose to remember. Karan had compassion, was resilient and faced the consequences of her actions. She stumbled, fell and went back up and to the best of her abilities tried to make amends. With a mother so judgmental and emotionally absent, Karan was pretty much an orphan. At some point when Karan felt so lonely after her mother once again, fail to be a mother who cared, Karan actually thought of suicide. Her best friend, Susanna, came to the rescue. Susanna and Rhonda (director of the shelter Karan did her community service hours) were wonderful secondary characters.
Ever so slowly Charles and Karan accepted their mistakes, talked about said mistakes, decisions were made based on what was right for them not because of what was expected of them and rekindled the love the never stopped feeling for each other. They became better persons and that was a joy to read.
Karan irritated me at the start of the story. A rich girl with two ex-husbands, self absorbed and apparently oblivious to consequences product of her negligence or reckless behaviour. 'Death didn't touch Karan's world. Nothing did. Everything skimmed right across the surface. She didn't deal with death. If she didn't like the headlines in the newspaper, she cancelled the subscription. If she didn't like the tragedy blasting sound bites, she turned off the television. Karan didn't deal in real life. Only in indulgence. In the things that didn't make it a bit of difference. I believed Charles' opinion of his ex-wife. I was on Charles' side.
But Karan wasn't the person Charles and I thought. Or the person Charles chose to remember. Karan had compassion, was resilient and faced the consequences of her actions. She stumbled, fell and went back up and to the best of her abilities tried to make amends. With a mother so judgmental and emotionally absent, Karan was pretty much an orphan. At some point when Karan felt so lonely after her mother once again, fail to be a mother who cared, Karan actually thought of suicide. Her best friend, Susanna, came to the rescue. Susanna and Rhonda (director of the shelter Karan did her community service hours) were wonderful secondary characters.
Ever so slowly Charles and Karan accepted their mistakes, talked about said mistakes, decisions were made based on what was right for them not because of what was expected of them and rekindled the love the never stopped feeling for each other. They became better persons and that was a joy to read.
June 8, 2011
After I finished this book I just felt…meh. It doesn’t really feel like it was a romance novel. There is a happily ever after, but it comes at the very end of the book. The couple never even goes on so much as a date throughout the book. Karan and Charles do share a past, which makes the HEA more believable, but I just felt like something was missing. Most of the story is about Karan and her self-centered behavior. Karan sees the world in one way - how it affects her. This changes as she visits a therapists and learns some things about herself. Charles is very one dimensional. He comes across as emotionally unavailable in the beginning and it doesn’t change really throughout the book. I didn’t feel a connection between the two.
July 29, 2011
Ok, so this is one of those Harlequin Super Romances, but I have to tell you right off the bat that I think there is a ton of stuff in this novel that is very substantive. Certainly the two main characters are smart, intelligent, professional, worldly, yet they are ex-spouses and they are both carrying around a TON of baggage, much of which they don't even know how to decipher or have chosen subconsciously not to deal with.
That being said, it is evident that Karan is a woman who has drawn strong responses from people in her past--both negative and positive. A simple traffic ticket--at least that is what it appears to be on the surface--is not so simple after all, especially when being adjudicated by a judge who Karan treated like dog doo in their high school days. Payback time!! Add in the presence, right in the middle of the hearing, the chief of police who, as it happens, was once Karan's really serious boyfriend--in love, planning a future, looking forward to the wedding after college, until he had the audacity to make a switch in his professional plans from lawyer to law enforcement, and she dropped him like a hot potato, and he is now married to another one of those girls who got the high-handed treatment from her in high school. Time to pay the piper, girl!! The upshot of this whole mess is that Karan ends up having to do community service in the new women's shelter for abused spouses and families, and the chief of staff there is her ex-husband Charles, the man who she loved deeply and who slowly but surely faded out of her life, allowing his surgical practice to become his partner instead of his wife. Karan is now divorced from husband #2, a doctor who was "safe," with whom there was definitely a sexual chemistry and with whom she was good friends. No love, because that would be too dangerous. She is living once again in the house that she and Charles bought even though the inside bears no resemblance to what it was during their marriage. Karan is screwed!!
While it appears that this novel is about Karan, that is not entirely true. There is a very clear and bright spotlight on Charles, on his internal struggles, his old resentments and angers, his deep desire to get Karan re-assigned to another community service project, especially after she messes up pretty badly and the safety of a couple of the women and families is put in danger. The glue that holds this story together is the therapist/psychologist who is the co-chief of staff at the shelter, a woman who genuinely likes Karan and Charles both, who loves helping these women and their children, and who sees incredible potential in Karan and admires and respects Charles for his professional achievements, but recognizes that he is a total dufus in his personal life. Her quiet but insightful comments to Karan and Charles individually start them both remembering, thinking, doing some authentic grieving, and in lots of ways she holds their feet to the fire emotionally.
I liked this book a lot!! I felt it was a wonderful expose of a marriage gone wrong but one that could have survived if these two people had been honest with themselves and each other, had been honest about their long-term goals and objectives, and had been willing to put their relationship ahead of their ambition. What was equally fascinating about this story was the way the author brought these two face to face repeatedly, forcing them to process more and more of their past, making them remember stuff they had refused to remember, and which ultimately helped to siphon away the anger and resentment so that each could begin to take responsibility for they way they had failed each other.
There was something so positive about this book, even while it felt like these two were going to end up murdering each other. Karan was boxed in legally, while Charles' professional obligations kept him lashed to the mast. Behind the overt action in each encounter was the recognition on the part of the reader that these two just couldn't get away from each other and that was the way it was supposed to be.
I have not read anything written previously by this author, but I think she exhibited a writing skill that was quite advanced, telling the story with an expert touch, and keeping all the background characters and the historical happenings in Charles' and Karan's lives straight. Lots of authors don't pull that off nearly as well. When push comes to shove, this was not a lightweight happy-go-lucky kind of romance. Rather it was girtty and uncomfortable and sort of an emotional toe-to-toe slugfest--not in a War of the Roses fashion, but certainly with enough adversarial sense about it. Many of us have read Harlequin publications down through the years and have found them to be fun and entertaining. This novel is certainly worth reading but I wouldn't put it in the "fun" category. That being said, it is a really splendid piece of writing and deserves to be read with care and attention. I know that I have already put it in my "to be read again" file.
I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5.
This review was originally posted on Book Binge by Judith.
That being said, it is evident that Karan is a woman who has drawn strong responses from people in her past--both negative and positive. A simple traffic ticket--at least that is what it appears to be on the surface--is not so simple after all, especially when being adjudicated by a judge who Karan treated like dog doo in their high school days. Payback time!! Add in the presence, right in the middle of the hearing, the chief of police who, as it happens, was once Karan's really serious boyfriend--in love, planning a future, looking forward to the wedding after college, until he had the audacity to make a switch in his professional plans from lawyer to law enforcement, and she dropped him like a hot potato, and he is now married to another one of those girls who got the high-handed treatment from her in high school. Time to pay the piper, girl!! The upshot of this whole mess is that Karan ends up having to do community service in the new women's shelter for abused spouses and families, and the chief of staff there is her ex-husband Charles, the man who she loved deeply and who slowly but surely faded out of her life, allowing his surgical practice to become his partner instead of his wife. Karan is now divorced from husband #2, a doctor who was "safe," with whom there was definitely a sexual chemistry and with whom she was good friends. No love, because that would be too dangerous. She is living once again in the house that she and Charles bought even though the inside bears no resemblance to what it was during their marriage. Karan is screwed!!
While it appears that this novel is about Karan, that is not entirely true. There is a very clear and bright spotlight on Charles, on his internal struggles, his old resentments and angers, his deep desire to get Karan re-assigned to another community service project, especially after she messes up pretty badly and the safety of a couple of the women and families is put in danger. The glue that holds this story together is the therapist/psychologist who is the co-chief of staff at the shelter, a woman who genuinely likes Karan and Charles both, who loves helping these women and their children, and who sees incredible potential in Karan and admires and respects Charles for his professional achievements, but recognizes that he is a total dufus in his personal life. Her quiet but insightful comments to Karan and Charles individually start them both remembering, thinking, doing some authentic grieving, and in lots of ways she holds their feet to the fire emotionally.
I liked this book a lot!! I felt it was a wonderful expose of a marriage gone wrong but one that could have survived if these two people had been honest with themselves and each other, had been honest about their long-term goals and objectives, and had been willing to put their relationship ahead of their ambition. What was equally fascinating about this story was the way the author brought these two face to face repeatedly, forcing them to process more and more of their past, making them remember stuff they had refused to remember, and which ultimately helped to siphon away the anger and resentment so that each could begin to take responsibility for they way they had failed each other.
There was something so positive about this book, even while it felt like these two were going to end up murdering each other. Karan was boxed in legally, while Charles' professional obligations kept him lashed to the mast. Behind the overt action in each encounter was the recognition on the part of the reader that these two just couldn't get away from each other and that was the way it was supposed to be.
I have not read anything written previously by this author, but I think she exhibited a writing skill that was quite advanced, telling the story with an expert touch, and keeping all the background characters and the historical happenings in Charles' and Karan's lives straight. Lots of authors don't pull that off nearly as well. When push comes to shove, this was not a lightweight happy-go-lucky kind of romance. Rather it was girtty and uncomfortable and sort of an emotional toe-to-toe slugfest--not in a War of the Roses fashion, but certainly with enough adversarial sense about it. Many of us have read Harlequin publications down through the years and have found them to be fun and entertaining. This novel is certainly worth reading but I wouldn't put it in the "fun" category. That being said, it is a really splendid piece of writing and deserves to be read with care and attention. I know that I have already put it in my "to be read again" file.
I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5.
This review was originally posted on Book Binge by Judith.
May 22, 2011
OK, so this is one of those Harlequin Superromances, but I have to tell you that I stayed up well past my bedtime to finish this one. A well-to-do socialite, now once again single after her second divorce, finds herself in court with a drunk driving charge against her. The judge is an old adversary from high school days when Karan was the queen of the "stuck-ups" and the judge was one of those kids on the outside looking in. The tables are well and truly turned. Her attorney successfully lobbies for community service rather than jail-time (with the assistance of the Chief of Police who was Karan's first really serious beau and who was kicked to the curb when he chose to go into law enforcement rather than into a law practice. That choice didn't fit into her "life plan.") So this lady finds herself working in a newly opened domestic abuse family shelter and her lack of skills begins to cause some serious problems along with the fact that the co-director of the program is a doctor who was her first husband. Now I also want to point out that when you review the bare bones of the plot and story line it sounds like a long-running soap opera. But I have to say that there are some very interesting characters that give some serious depth to this tale--Karan's mother who is a "closet alcoholic," the psychotherapist who is presiding over Karan's court-ordered therapy, and who is a genuine "peopel" person, the ex-husband who has a whole truck load of issues. While there is some obvious adversarial stuff built into this story, I think my liking for this novel revolves around the fact that both the main characters were mature enough to finally work through some of the hurt and upsets that it turns out they both still harbor long after the divorce. That they see their own need to "grow up" and the ways in which that process moves forward makes for some very interesting reading. This book also delves just a bit into the need for these kinds of havens for spouses and children of angry and destructive husbands. All in all, I found it to be an entertaining and stimulating read.
June 7, 2011
Most of my favorite categories are part of the Harlequin Superromance line. This book is a good example of why this is true. I like my romances rich in contexts of family and community, and I prefer my hero and heroine to be adults with a history, some baggage, and some growing room. Jeanie London provides all these things in The Husband Lesson.
I particularly liked that this book was more than just another reunion romance. A twice-divorced heroine who is in court charged with impaired driving is not the typical romance heroine. Add to that first image her wealth, her style, and her past as Perfect Cheerleader and girlfriend of the star athlete, and you can see that Karan Reece seems more fitted for the role of a secondary character the reader loves to hate than for heroine. Charles Steinberg is a little better, but not much. A cardiothoracic surgeon immersed in his work to the exclusion of everything else, he sees himself as fault free in the failure of his marriage to Karan.
Both characters have real problems, and Landon shows them discovering truths about themselves that push them to change and mature, accepting responsibility for their bad choices. The HEA is believable because Karan and Charles understand that their problems will require more that sweet words and good sex to resolve.
The ending did seem rushed to me. I wanted to see more of the process of reconciliation. I felt that the story needed single-title length. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and have no hesitation in recommending it. This was my first book by Jeanie London, but it won’t be my last. I’ve already made a note to check out her backlist. This book will be released July 5. I received my copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
I particularly liked that this book was more than just another reunion romance. A twice-divorced heroine who is in court charged with impaired driving is not the typical romance heroine. Add to that first image her wealth, her style, and her past as Perfect Cheerleader and girlfriend of the star athlete, and you can see that Karan Reece seems more fitted for the role of a secondary character the reader loves to hate than for heroine. Charles Steinberg is a little better, but not much. A cardiothoracic surgeon immersed in his work to the exclusion of everything else, he sees himself as fault free in the failure of his marriage to Karan.
Both characters have real problems, and Landon shows them discovering truths about themselves that push them to change and mature, accepting responsibility for their bad choices. The HEA is believable because Karan and Charles understand that their problems will require more that sweet words and good sex to resolve.
The ending did seem rushed to me. I wanted to see more of the process of reconciliation. I felt that the story needed single-title length. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and have no hesitation in recommending it. This was my first book by Jeanie London, but it won’t be my last. I’ve already made a note to check out her backlist. This book will be released July 5. I received my copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
June 15, 2011
This is a book that could have been a lot better than it was. Karan is the (ex) wife of a (actually two) wealthy doctors. She spends her days flitting from this to that, involved in politics and parties, and one day at a party for a candidate, she did something she never did--she drank too much, and then got behind the wheel of a car. She ended up in court in front of a judge with whom she went to high school "Wannabe Jenny" (who had tried out for the cheerleading squad when Karan had been captain, but who didn't make the squad at least in part because Karan had to make room for her friends). Karan was sentenced to community service at a home for abused mothers, where she runs into her first ex-husband who is one of those running the program.
I really didn't like Karan--even though she was long-past high school, many of her actions and ways of relating to people were high-schoolish. Until the end of the book when she has this revelation, it is all about her.
I liked the part of the book about the work she did with the home and with the women in crisis. I enjoyed seeing her grow as a person throughout the book and of course the happy ending was nice. The writing was a little over-the-top at times, and I could have lived with a few less descriptions of some people's physical attributes.
In short, it's a romance novel, not squeaky clean and not particularly well-written, but entertaining in its own way. Grade: C+.
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.
I really didn't like Karan--even though she was long-past high school, many of her actions and ways of relating to people were high-schoolish. Until the end of the book when she has this revelation, it is all about her.
I liked the part of the book about the work she did with the home and with the women in crisis. I enjoyed seeing her grow as a person throughout the book and of course the happy ending was nice. The writing was a little over-the-top at times, and I could have lived with a few less descriptions of some people's physical attributes.
In short, it's a romance novel, not squeaky clean and not particularly well-written, but entertaining in its own way. Grade: C+.
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.
August 10, 2011
My grade: B+. I really liked this story. It attracted me because of the different premise. A woman is convicted of Driving While Ability Impaired (combination of low blood sugar and alcohol below the legal limit) and is sentenced to community service at a domestic abuse shelter. Her first husband is the director and they have a lot of unresolved issues. She's also a Country Club Barbie. Very sharp but no passions to direct her mind toward. Part of her sentence is mandatory counseling. Both Karan and Charles have a lot to figure out about themselves--things they'd never seen before. For Karan, it's like a light going on. I loved the issues both of these characters had to work through and how doing this hard work on themselves enabled them to change and get their lives back on track. Back on the same track, by the way. They didn't get together until the very end. From about midpoint on, I figured that was the way it would be. I really did want to see a bit more of them together, see them interacting and enjoying life together. Most of the book they were struggling against each other or just struggling. Well, I have a feeling there will be another story about Karan's best friend and hopefully I'll get another look at them in that book. I would definitely read a book about Suzanne.
May 4, 2011
Reviewed at: Library of Lights
Date reviewed: 4 May 2011
Review link: http://mykindaland.com/?p=232
The Husband Lesson by Jeanie London is a little bit slow-paced for me and i found it difficult not to skip a few pages until some point of the story. But the paced picked up soon after and I found that the book is not only romantic, but full of moral as well.
I just wish that there’s more romance in this story instead of too much description on the social work and whatnot. The ending somehow disappointed me. I wish there’s more fire and passion at the end of the story, but there was none. This is a good read nevertheless. I enjoyed reading it though I find it difficult to grasps in the beginning.
I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. I received an ARC of this book from Harlequin Publisher via Netgalley and I was not compensated in any ways for writing this review.
For more information on this title, please click here.
Date reviewed: 4 May 2011
Review link: http://mykindaland.com/?p=232
The Husband Lesson by Jeanie London is a little bit slow-paced for me and i found it difficult not to skip a few pages until some point of the story. But the paced picked up soon after and I found that the book is not only romantic, but full of moral as well.
I just wish that there’s more romance in this story instead of too much description on the social work and whatnot. The ending somehow disappointed me. I wish there’s more fire and passion at the end of the story, but there was none. This is a good read nevertheless. I enjoyed reading it though I find it difficult to grasps in the beginning.
I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. I received an ARC of this book from Harlequin Publisher via Netgalley and I was not compensated in any ways for writing this review.
For more information on this title, please click here.
March 10, 2012
There's a lot of in the head stuff in this book. I liked the author's idea that you can't control other people's actions or responses, just ensure your actions allow you to look yourself in the eye at the end of the day. I liked it other than I thought that the two main characters got together way too easily - they didn't even seem to talk about their problems.
May 23, 2013
Not a light and fluffy read by any means.
Ms. London writes a second-chance story that really puts the hero and heroine through the wringer, and not really in the "fighting zombies and the establishment and the end-of-the-world" kind of sense. One that gets you thinking as it dives into the hearts and minds of the characters.
Ms. London writes a second-chance story that really puts the hero and heroine through the wringer, and not really in the "fighting zombies and the establishment and the end-of-the-world" kind of sense. One that gets you thinking as it dives into the hearts and minds of the characters.
January 12, 2013
Good ol' romance with a hint of comedy. It's always nice to read a book where you see the characters grow with every chapter. Once you pick it up and start reading, you'd be surprised that you can't seem to put it down.
Read
December 24, 2014Miniseries: Together Again
Read
December 24, 2014Miniseries: Together Again
May 18, 2014
Good reunion story. I'd have liked a little more of the hero's issues-how his past related to his avoidance-but overall I liked it a lot.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews