** spoiler alert ** 
 Higgins has a real gift when it comes to characterization, especially the secondary characters. Her writing is solid, although the narration in this novel didn't grab me like Catch of the Day did. It felt kind of flat and blah, though this might have been intentional in order to portray the stunted half-living emotional state of the narrator (since it's done in first person). There was also way, way less comedy, although given the premise that's not too surprising. 
 I sympathized a lot with the main character. I've, thankfully, never been widowed (knock-on-wood), but have had the...opportunity, shall we say, of experiencing life/soul/heart/world-shattering events. Really, you can't rush healing. Even if your head, logic, and everyone else in the world is telling you, "Get over it already," healing just doesn't work that way. Healing happens when it happens. You have to be true to yourself and take things as they come. If you force yourself, you'll just relapse. Higgins seems to write from experience in recovering from personal tragedy, the whole thing was spot-on. 
 I even sympathized with Lucy's neurotic sister. Courtesy of afore-mentioned catastrophic events, it's easy to imagine that the best thing in your life will be ripped away prematurely. I spent a year or two with a knot of anxiety in my heart, fearing I would be widowed young and lose the best person in my life. The only thing that helped was facing up to the possibility and making a contingency plan (I would spend a year or two living with his parents, whom I adore, and then move to Hawaii). Granted, I didn't get all super control-freaky with my husband before I figured things out, and the character succeeded in annoying the hell out of me every time she appeared, but I can see where she's coming from. 
 I gotta say though, that once again, I couldn't get behind the romantic pairing here. The whole Sex-with-brother-in-law thing just squicked me the fuck out through the entire novel. If it had been Jimmy's best friend, sure. But Jimmy's brother? Ew. No. Just, no. I couldn't get behind Ethan as a person either. I hated his nasty temper, and felt he was unfair, and even emotionally manipulative and vindictive at times. And with all his big-brother-issues, I didn't trust his motives with Lucy for a good portion of the book. 
 Then, the ending felt rushed and cheezy. Way, way too fairy-tale for my tastes. Unrealistic, too. So, what, in order to move on she needed people to tarnish Jimmy's memory and point out that he wasn't perfect? What? Bleh. Honestly I wanted Lucy to move out of town, get a job as a pastry chef, get away from the bad memories and widow-club, get away from the bossy rich friend, get away from the nasty Doral, away from her toxic and squicky relationship with her brother-in-law, meet someone new, GET SOME THERAPY, get a fresh start.