Fools Rush In is the third Kristan Higgins book I've read in the last couple of weeks, and I'm beginning to notice a pattern.  All of her romances, instead of focusing on improbable happily ever afters, are about rather wholesome-seeming relationships.  And after reading this last one, I realized what it is about them that makes them so real.

In each of the three Higgins books I've read recently -- Fools Rush In, Just One of the Guys, and The Next Best Thing -- the heroine and the guy she ends up with have had a strong bond of friendship.

This isn't what you typically see in romance novels.  In fact, a great many romance novels are about extremely unhealthy relationships.  They may be good fun and escapist fiction, sure, but if it were my teenage daughter reading them (if I had a teenage daughter, that is), we would have to have a long talk about what expectations are and are not realistic in a relationship.

Kristan Higgins books are an exception.  She manages to make her books funny and just as entertaining and romantic as other romance novels, without sacrificing the quality of the relationships.  Her heroines frequently learn the hard way what kinds of relationships don't work, and when they finally find love with the hero of their novel, they are able to recognize what it is about him that makes their relationship right.

Of course, this lesson doesn't come easily, at least not without a great many hilarious scenes that virtually any woman can relate to.  A first date with someone who turns out to be "not as advertised," a carefully planned encounter with "the one" gone wrong, embarrassing moments with family...  Who knew novels about healthy relationships could be so much fun?