Review: He Blongs To Me by Theresa Rizzo

He Belongs To Me by Theresa Rizzo, AF, 2013, 392p, Rating=4
Source: eARC provided by author in exchange for an honest review
Adult content: language

He Belongs to Me is a love story . . . a tale of betrayal and deception and of a young mother's determination to recover what belongs to her.

Forced to leave her baby and tricked into relinquishing her parental rights, four years later Catherine Boyd is back and she'll do anything to regain custody of her son--even reconcile with the husband falsely accused of killing their son's twin.

All in the name of love for a little boy, generations of pain and tragedy are exposed in a courtroom drama.

The premise has been done before.  Nonetheless this one was weaved in a matter that found me emotionally vested.  As one can imagine involving custody battle, it wasn't pretty.  Secrets and drama was to unfold in the courtroom.  This discovery process got me eager to get to the final verdict.

I like that the story didn't harp in the ugliness but on the emotional background of the characters involved.  I was quickly lead to like Catherine and be intrigued by her husband, Thomas.  Soon I was guided to find Eric and Sarah (Catherine's parents who currently have legal care of Catherine's son, Drew) to be manipulative and unscrupulous.  So it made sense for me to root for Catherine and Thomas to successfully gain guardianship over Drew.  Henceforth, sublimely rallying for the traditional nuclear family as well. 

The very end was a bit too rushed and quickly packaged for my taste.  Other than that, it was an overall terrific family love story disclosing in the style of legal drama as can be seen in TV series, Law and Order, but without murder. ;)