SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY by Joshilyn Jackson

The heart-stopping scene at the beginning of this book is a hard act to follow.  A wacko wielding a gun holds up a convenience store while Shandi and her young son Natty are inside.  Another hostage is William, a hunky guy who is still mourning the absence of his wife and daughter following a fatal car crash.  William has basically lost the will to live, and Shandi misinterprets his uttering of the word “destiny” to mean that she and he should be together.  The rest of the book does not quite measure up to this auspicious start.  Shandi has another male friend, Walcott, who has stood by her since childhood and even rescued her the night her son was conceived at a frat party.  By the same token, William’s best friend is a woman—Paula, a no-nonsense attorney.  Walcott and Paula are the foils to Shandi’s hot pursuit of William and William’s depressed state of mind.  What I think Shandi and William really need are some friends of their own gender.  William may be high functioning, but he has some degree of autism.  Paula, for one, does not think Shandi is up to the task of coping with William’s disorder or with his grief.  Walcott is not too crazy about Shandi’s designs on William, either, leading us to believe that both he and Paula want to advance beyond that “just friends” relationship.  In any case, William works in a genetics lab, and Shandi enlists his help in finding out who her son’s father is, starting with his genetic blueprint, because Shandi doesn’t remember a thing about that night.  The discovery of the father’s identity is a bit of a stretch, but the real kicker is when he recounts what actually happened.  The tragedy in William’s life is just as murky, as the author tantalizes us with hints about the auto accident without giving us full disclosure until late in the book.  One big surprise lurks in the pages, and I did not see it coming.  Was it worth the wait?  Not really, but I don’t mean to complain.  I still thought the revelations about William’s and Shandi’s pasts were well-timed and well-camouflaged.