Ponder: When I Found You

When I Found You ©2021 is the 8th book in the Silver Springs series by Brenda Novak. It is a romance novel and by that association not grandiose literature. I like this series as a comfortable read with a familiar cast of characters. Silver Springs is an area far enough from Los Angles to be quiet country and close enough to the metropolitan are to draw on it for city excitement. In a similar genre, Brenda Novak writes a series set in Whiskey Creek (post for 5/5/18), an area on the outskirts of Sacramento in gold country, that draws on its big city offerings when needed. In When I Found You there is a crossover between the characters from both series, an aspect that was serendipitous and made for further enjoyment..

The plot takes the reader eight years back in time. The heroine, teenage Natasha and her mother, were living in a household with twenty-six year old Mack and his four older brothers in Whiskey Creek as related in Discovering You,  the tenth book of that series, my post dated 5/5/18. She was attracted to him at that time but, although he was drawn to her, he felt that she was off limits to him due to her young age. He nobly stayed away so as not to thwart her going off to college. Fast forward eight years and she is a pediatrician and reappears in this eighth book of the Silver Springs series. An incident with one of her child patients destroyed her practice and her marriage. Divorced, penniless, with a six-year old young son, Lucas, she relocates to the Silver Springs region to start anew. Mack hears of her troubles and steps in to help her with the move. The pull and tug and push of them getting back together is entertaining and the antics of the young boy cannot help but make the reader smile.

I rated When I Found You relative to other books in the series since on an absolute literary scale romance novels are not considered intellectual literature. As romance novels go though, the woman is not a ditz and the man is not a chauvinistic pig; working a child into the relationship is refreshing, too.  It was a fun – and very quick – read; but,  I do admit, this audience is most likely limited to Brenda Novak fans or fans of romance novels. Amazon readers gave it 4.7 stars out of 5. I gave it 4 stars which translates in my rating system to

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience.

The following list summarizes my ratings for the Brenda Novak's books in the Silver Springs Series. Each is followed by the date of my blog post review of that particular title.

1) Finding Our Forever ©2017 3 stars (post for 12/4/17)

2) No One But You ©2017 4 stars (post for 11/10/17)

3) Until You Loved Me ©2017 5 stars (post for 11/2/17 )

4) Right Where We Belong 3 stars (post for 2/15/18 )

5) Unforgettable You ©2019 4 stars (post for 5/12/19 )

6) Christmas in Silver Springs ©2019 2 stars (post for 5/21/20)

7) A California Christmas ©2020 3 stars (post on 12/26/20)

8) When I Found You ©2021 4 stars (this post on 7/26/21)