I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley.

Darla (nursing student) meets Theo (medical student) at a party and they hit it off, but (for reasons which are crucial to the plot) don't exchange names. There is a fire at the party and in the confusion they lose touch and cannot track one another down. Darla discovers she is pregnant, but then receives a group email from her ex-roommate Mallory with a photo of Theo, whom Mallory describes as "the one". Using an address gleaned from Mallory's email, she contacts Theo to say she is pregnant, but he tells her to leave him alone. Cut to seven years later, when Theo and Darla find out they are working at the same hospital and Theo seems delighted to see Darla and makes no reference to their daughter. Then it emerges that Mallory has followed Theo to his new job.

I liked the set-up of the story and Darla's co-worker and best friend Isaac was fun, but the plot dragged for me. There wasn't really much plot to speak of until the end and the author missed an opportunity to make Mallory much more of a villain than she did. Darla fails to confront Theo about his abandonment of her, and then, once she realizes he has no idea about their child, she seems to go out of her way to find reasons to avoid telling him. She manages to tell all her friends and two of Theo's siblings, but not Theo himself. Then there is a big crisis, which precipitates the revelation and then even that drags on for far too long, until Theo's siblings stage an intervention. You begin to wonder if Darla and Theo will ever manage to sustain a communicative relationship without the help of friends and family. Given that it has taken Theo seven years to escape from Mallory's clutches, you worry about his gumption generally.

There were various references to Theo's Christian faith; he keeps a bible by his bed while having unprotected sex with a girl he has just met whose name he doesn't know (and presumably while sleeping with Mallory, whom he has no intention of ever marrying), his dad is a pastor etc. These references annoyed me as his faith didn't really seem to inform any of his decisions, it just cropped up now and then to advance the plot.

Harmless enough, but I wouldn't re-read it.

I loved this book. I thought it was fantastically written and read it in one sitting. Would recommend.

Left Hanging, Cindy Dorminy

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  Romance, Women's fiction

Sometimes I want a solid, absorbing fantasy read and others something lighter. Yesterday was one of those so this book was what I chose. 

It fills that Lighter tag perfectly, being a sweet romance, great characters and a story that feels quite light and fluffy and then...descends into some serious drama, showing another side to al the characters and having some amazing emotion to it. 

I really liked the characters, they were a good mix from lovely Darla, hunkalicious Theo, to the wonderful Isaac who brought in some great humour.
Darla's has no immediate family except for sister Diane and daughter Stella, but she's got some fabulous friend's in the few people she let close in her life. she's brought up Stella alone for many years now, thinking Theo didn't want them.
Then he turns up on a working rotation at her hospital....

He's not what she expected, seems to have no idea about Stella and she's puzzled. He's clearly still attracted to her, flirting and acting really pleased to see her. Why doesn't he ask about Stella? His attitude is perplexing.
Theo is gorgeous, inside and out, and is delighted to find his "Juliet" having lost track of her after the fire on the night they met. without even her real name he'd no way to track her. He can't belive he's been given a second chance and isn't going to let her go, but has to tread carefully as she seems scared.

Of course there's a balance to all these "good" characters in Mallory, Darla's roommate from college, Theo's Ex, though that term isn't defined according to Darla!
I love characters like hers ;-) Though she wasn't all nasty, and when she was it was kind of muted...bring on the Bad for me, the Darker the better. This is just kind of soft grey...

There's a thinnish Christian thread running through here, with Theo being a preachers son, and his family all strongly religious, and though that's often a turn off for me in a book it fits here.
Its kept relevant to the story, gives a backbone to Theo's family and the type of people they are so that I understand them, but at no time does the story Preach to the reader - that's what really puts me off, when The Lord is the answer to everything and we just need to have more Faith.
I'm not anti Christian, I'm just one of those who believer in a higher power but is it god as Christians see him or something/someone else? Here the religious side is just perfect for the story-line and works. 
 
Stars: Four, a fun, cute and light romance with some unexpected depth towards the end.

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

OMG this book is the worst book I have read in years. Beyond awful and I hate saying that because it is well written and I really respect authors and they all work hard on their books but this story was beyond awful. I am not sure I can even finish it and I am at 80%. Everytime I think the worst plot device has happened and I felt things got better well they get worse. This book was just plain depressing and I had a tough time liking the characters. I think I liked Tommy and Shelby the best and they are very minor characters.

The basic plot is that 7 years before Juliet and Romeo meet at a party and fall in love and have sex. Unknown to each other Juliet is Darla and Romeo is Theo. Theo has had a thing for Darla for awhile but he never even talked with her. Anyways they have sex, there is a fire, Theo is injured, Darla graduates and they go their separate ways.

However during the summer, Darla's roomie hooks up with Theo and she dates him for 7years, leading up to the start of this book. Meanwhile Darla's summer included finding out she was pregnant and when she sees her roomies new boyfriend she realises he is the baby daddy and emails him but he tells her to get lost and so she does.

Now the book is 7 years later and Theo is breaking up with Mallory, moving home and getting a new job, he is a dr and well Mallory follows/stalks him. At the new job he meets Darla and he now is so happy because he found his true love. Meanwhile Darla thinks he knows about the baby but he seems to not. And so she needs to tell him the truth and they have a relationship and even confess their love but stil Darla never tells him. Pretty much everyone knows and still she won't tell him.

There were so many things I hated about this story. First lets start with Theo's diabetes. It was discussed ALOT. From night one with Romeo and Juliet, when he gives himself shots and has insulin in his fridge, to when he gives a talk to his sisters class and finally to when he believes he is infertile from being diabetic. Then there is the discussions about his insulin pump, anyways I can go on. I did not object to him having diabetes, it was that it took away from his sexiness and the scenes he was in.

My second major issue with Theo that made him seem very weak was his relationship with Mallory. & 7 FREAKING YEARS! He dated. lived with, had sex with for 7 years and he never loved her. He actually was a virgin with Juliet, so he never even had sex with anyone but Mallory and Juliet in 7 years. Then we get a fake pregancy thrown in to this love triangle and Theo would have married and stayed with Mallory if she was pregnant. The whole plot device was awful, Its different if he loved Mallory but he NEVER loved her and 7 years. Totally crazy.

Now Darla was pretty bad too. She finally learns her babies dadddies name and she emails him. She could have at anytime knocked on Mallory's door but instead she emails the guy to say she is pregnant and after one go away, she does away. Then when she find out he didn't know that actually someone else got the emails, she still does not tell him. She even tells Mallory before him. I really lost patience with her and her many excuses.

Now if the diverted email was not bad enough, the ex pregnancy scare,, you won't believe what happens next. The daughter gets a flesh eating disease at Disneyland. And thats how Theo eventually finds out the thruth. OMG it was sooooooo awful. So thats 80% and I am just not sure I can keep reading anyone. I am not sure I can take anymore of these horrible plot devices.'