Taking Chances

I had to re-read this book after re-reading Makeover! I have really loved the characters in these books, they just seem so real and so likable. Maggie is a painter living in Saint George when she discovers that a great grandmother she's never met has left her a home in Alpine. She hasn't had any great inspiration for her paintings lately, so she decides to move to Alpine for a while to check out the house and see if inspiration will find her. Within a few minutes of moving to her new home, she's broken her favorite easel, met her new neighbor Luke, and discovered that her paternal grandparents have broken into her home and made her a lovely dinner. She thinks that Luke is just a cranky banker that she'll never get to know, but she also thinks that he's cute and pretty soon she discovers that she'd really like to get to know him. She's not really sure about either her maternal grandmother or her paternal grandparents who both happen to live within a mile of her new house. Her mother was abused as a child by her stepfather, so Maggie really wants nothing to do with the woman who allowed that to happen. Her father died not very long after her parents were married and at the funeral his parents were not kind to her mother, so she really doesn't want to get to know them either. But Maggie has a big lesson to learn, that lesson is that we need to forgive to help ourselves become a better person. Can she learn that lesson before it's too late? This was a fun book to re-read! I would totally read it again, and I probably will!