Good book with a central theme of relationships. The main character is Clare, middle sister, who is going through some major changes in her life. Her older sister Maggie and younger sister Sarah also have important roles in the story.

The story opens with Clare, who has left her husband of sixteen years for the fourth time because of his cheating, finding him in bed in their own home with yet another of his women. Furious with him and herself, she drives off in a state and promptly gets stopped for speeding. The nice young cop, Sam, lets her off with a warning, then watches in horror as Clare's car is t-boned by a car running a red light. He stays with her until she's taken off by the ambulance.

Her injuries are extremely serious, requiring surgery and months of physical therapy. Her family rallies around her, but Clare realizes it's time to take control of her life. She lets cheating Roger know that she's not coming back this time and starts to make plans for her future. During this time, she makes some new connections and revives some old ones.

One of her new connections is Sam, the cop who stopped her the night of the accident. He makes his interest in her plain, which is flattering to an ego that has been battered by her husband's infidelities. Sam has a very romantic side and is intent on showing her his feelings. While his attentions make her feel good, is it enough to build a relationship on? I loved the honest way that she looked at herself and her feelings, and that she had the courage to do what she felt was right.

Clare also reconnects with her high school friend Pete. He is the younger brother of the guy she had loved through high school and college. She and Pete have a history that kept them apart even after Mike's death. Clare makes the decision that it is time to face that history and see if their friendship can be repaired. Once they have faced and talked about what happened back then, they move quickly back into their old comfort with each other. But there is something different, and when Pete drops a bombshell about that past event, Clare finds herself looking at him in a whole new way. There were some really sweet scenes between them, and I especially loved the one the night of her birthday party. There were also some pretty steamy scenes.

Clare also has to deal with the effect of his father's actions on her son Jason. He seemed like a pretty typical teenager, sometimes smart and sometimes not. The author makes his reactions very believable. I especially liked seeing him confess to Clare what was bothering him the most, and I thought she dealt with it beautifully. When Jason does something really stupid, I loved seeing Clare and Roger come together as a team to deal with it.

Roger was thoroughly unlikable at the beginning with his cheating ways and attitude. It was interesting to see how he changed through the book. I loved that he took ownership of the failure of his marriage and that he was determined to improve his relationship with Jason. His persistence was admirable, and the scene where that first step was made was fantastic.

Clare's sisters also have their own issues going on in the book. Maggie is the oldest, married with two girls and a successful lawyer. But the magic seems to have gone out of her marriage, and she is a bit envious of Clare's romantic life. But whatever else is going on, she is always there to support Clare. There are a couple of really fun sister scenes, including one that takes place the night that Clare has a date with Sam.

Sarah is the youngest one. As a teen and young adult she had been a wild child, taking risks that her family tried to talk her out of. Her relationship with her mother was especially bad. When her mom died before she and Sarah could fix things, Sarah went into a depression and completely changed her life. Now she buries herself in her art and dresses very dowdy. Then an introduction to a gorgeous man has her wanting to make changes of her own, and she's off and running. I loved the development of the new relationship as the two seem perfectly suited to each other. An unexpected bump in the road has Sarah questioning his feelings, and it takes a near disaster for him to realize what they are.

What I really liked about this book is that it didn't end with everything all sunshine and roses. There are ongoing issues that will have to be dealt with but they all have the foundation to do it. ( )

Never Too Late by Robyn Carr 3-1/2*

Story following the lives and loves of three sisters: Maggie, Clare, and Sarah. Covers the gamut of varying marital issues between long-time married couples, dating again after divorce or years of being single, bouncing back after difficult circumstances--both physical and emotional, second chances and fresh starts, and new love for people who have some years behind them to know what they want.

I don't want to leave a more detailed synopsis of this story because some of the surprises are what make it interesting. I didn't like some of the happenings or choices made by people while I was reading, but everything came together in the end with a result I was happy with. Something that happened with one of the couples (last scene of the book and a simple but touching event) ended up making this one of my favorite book endings ever. ( )

Robyn Carr’s books – her single-title books in particular – are a mix of women’s fiction, family drama and romance. This one was a little different in style to anything I’ve read from Carr before; I honestly don’t know if I’d have picked her as the author if I hadn’t known who wrote it.

This is not a fast-paced book, but then I guess you can figure that from the cover. It is also not focused on a particular relationship, but more on a group of people who eventually find their happy endings.
After finding her husband having sex with another woman on his fortieth birthday, Clare gets pulled over for speeding. The cop – Sam – is still behind her a few minutes later when her car is hit by an SUV and Clare is badly hurt. This incident grows to encompass Clare’s whole family and some people from her past. The title - Never Too Late - gives you a good idea of what to expect from this story, for all of the characters involved.
Some of the things the characters go through are painfully realistic, sometimes even mortifying. I wanted to die when Clare had such a disastrous experience trying to return to teaching. High schoolers are evil creatures! Clare’s two sisters have problems of their own, and the younger sister, Sarah, has a story that almost receives the same amount of page time as Clare’s relationship.

Though this is not a straight romance, Carr’s best writing is always seen in the romance parts of her books, and I don’t think romance readers will be disappointed here. Of course the fact this is more of a women’s fiction story means the characters are allowed more creative screw-ups and, ahem, indiscretions than you’ll usually find in straight romance. I adored the two main male players – Sam and Pete (the brother of Clare’s dead childhood sweetheart). Both men had to go through some bad and heartbreaking experiences. I would have been happy to have either man!

Robyn Carr is one of those writers who can make everyday things seem really interesting, and she writes great characters and dialogue. I could definitely have coped with a longer book for this tale, as there were five or six major characters who could have done good things with more page space.

On the negative side, the author’s trademark head-jumping in her writing meant that while the focus of the beginning of this book was on Clare’s life, towards the end she (and her relationship) just about disappeared from the pages. I didn’t actually mind much, as I liked the direction the story took, but it is frustrating to become invested in one character’s story and then end up reading about someone else entirely. Carr’s guilty of this in many of her Virgin River books too.

Then towards the end it seemed she had a panic that she’d forgotten to include her all-time favourite theme: sexual health. We had a bizarre chapter where three characters made trips to the doctor for some super-personal reasons. We had a teenager who’d started having sex, a woman who was pregnant, and a man with some erectile dysfunction thing going on. It was weird and the teenager in particular completely unnecessary to the story, but thankfully was over fast so we could get back to the interesting stuff.

The end of Never Too Late had some echoes of Virgin River excitement, but other than that, this is a very different kind of book. What I liked best was how realistic everyone appeared to be, and the way people didn’t always make the right choices from the outset. If more books in this genre held my attention the way this one did I’d be a happy camper. ( )