The family brings her meals to her every day…meals that the new wife prepares each night for the family. And the former wife? Oh…she’s agoraphobic and lives in the basement. The father has cheated on the children’s mother with her nurse (while she was recuperating from cancer), his mistress gets pregnant, and he divorces his wife (named Victoria) to marry his mistress (also named Victoria) and moves the whole family into the former church, which becomes their home. They live in an old church bought by the father out from under the former pastor of the church in a form of retribution. Without Merit is about an “unusual” blended family. And a set of twins who are identical in appearance, but couldn’t be more different in personality and how they see the world. So, without ruining it for you, this is what I’ll tell you. There’s just so much going on - none of which you realize is all connected - until you close in on the last several pages when everything comes together. I don’t even know where to start to tell you about this book because I don’t want to ruin it for you. Hoover keeps her readers turning pages because her characters are so interesting and relatable, and I think she’s raised the bar even higher with Without Merit. Actually, quite a few authors do that and do so successfully, but what I find unique about Hoover is that it’s the characters that keep you reading and not necessarily the guesswork of a “whodunit” or the action of a fast-paced thriller.

She has this unique gift of pulling a reader in within the first few paragraphs, and keeping them reading until the last page is turned.

I’ve read almost everything she’s written, and I’ve never been let down by her characters or her writing. I should begin by saying I’m huge fan of Colleen Hoover’s work. So with that in mind, let’s get started with what I have no doubt will be among my top five book picks for 2018… Without Merit by Colleen Hoover. My goal is to read at least one book each week and review them on this blog on Mondays.

As I celebrated the new year, however, I decided - like many of us do - to make changes, and maybe the most important change I’m implementing is a return to my regular reading patterns of years gone by. Life has been busy these last few years, and with the crazy that has taken over my life, my dedication to reading and reviewing books has fallen to the wayside.

Without merit