Review & Giveaway: "I Couldn't Love You More" by Jillian Medoff

Eliot and Grant are raising three daughters in suburban Atlanta. Charlotte and Gail are Grant's daughters with his ex-wife, Beth, but since Beth has little to no interest in raising the girls Grant has full custody. Hailey is Eliot and Grant's daughter together, who enjoys bossing her parents and older sisters around. The five of them make up an unconventional family, especially given the fact that Eliot and Grant are not legally married, but they make up a family nonetheless. Having raised the girls since they were little, Eliot feels that Grant's daughters are just as much hers as Hailey is.

When Eliot bumps into her commitment-phobic ex-boyfriend Finn while dropping Hailey off at school, her whole world comes to a screeching halt. This is the man that left her after college without a backwards glance, and here he is in the flesh all of these years later, and the electricity is still crackling between them. Eliot is just beginning to deal with her newly rediscovered feelings when tragedy strikes her family and Eliot is left to deal with the aftermath. I Couldn't Love You More is a poignant look at the bonds that tie a family together.

I'll admit that I Couldn't Love You More started off a bit slowly for me, if only because my own expectations were too low. It's not that it wasn't well-written, because it was, it's that initially the story felt like it had been done before: family bonds threatened when an ex-boyfriend surfaces. Sometimes I get annoyed at that kind of story line- I always want to yell at the person being tempted to cheat because, let's face it, cheating is a choice people, and you can always choose to say no! However, and let me stress the 'however', I Couldn't Love You More ended up being nothing like what I expected. The story is clicking along at enjoyable pace when a plot twist occurs that I didn't see coming, even for a second. I was riveted and I read and I read and I read and I simply could not put this book down until I was finished.

My only complaint (and it's so small that it's almost minuscule!) is that in the story Eliot works as a business writing specialist, meaning that she repackages bad news as good news for companies having fallen on hard times, and a few of her fictional memos are included in the story. There was nothing wrong with them except for the fact that I felt that they didn't add much to the story, and they felt out of place to me.

Filled with profound truths ("Being your mother doesn't make me any less my own person. I existed for forty years before you came along, and while I owe you a fair amount of myself, I don't owe you everything." p.339), characters that are easy to relate to, and a twist that you won't see coming, I Couldn't Love You More is for anyone who has ever been given the gift of a child to look after.

My thanks to the publicist for inviting me to review this book. Thanks to the publisher, I have three copies of I Couldn't Love You More to give away to lucky Canadian and US readers! To enter:

1. *Mandatory Entry* Leave me a comment letting me know that you would like to be entered to win this book. Please leave me your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.

2. *Bonus Entry* Become a follower of this blog through Google Friend Connect. Current followers are eligible as well, just leave me a comment letting me know that you already follow!

3. *Bonus Entry* Spread the word about this contest in some way: blog about it, tweet about it, or share it on Facebook, just leave me a comment and let me know what you chose to do.

All entries may be combined into one comment if desired. Contest is open to US and Canadian residents only and the contest runs until May 23, 2012 at midnight. The winners will be chosen after this time and will be notified by e-mail. Good luck!