Anna’s life seemed like it was all on track for happiness and perfection when her high school crush fell in love with her and they started their life together. But two beautiful children later, things have definitely changed. We find Anna and Luke separated, and very much in love with their new partners. Luke has finally come to terms with his own sexuality and Anna is finally happy with the right man for her. But just because the children are grown up and the parents are finally living their lives doesn’t mean things are all roses. Because there’s some chaos going on in this seemingly happy family in Harmony to Heartburn by Shelly Hickman.

This book is great at showing you exactly what it’s like to have a family and go through a variety of different trials and tribulations with them. No family is perfect and in this book you get to see one very convoluted family working their way to some type of normalcy. It’s a great read because it helps you see that families really aren’t what we read about in stories where girl meets guy and they live happily ever after. There’s so much more to having a family than that, and I love the way this book introduces each of the characters with real flaws and real problems. It’s okay to not have a perfect life. This book helps you see that anything can be overcome if you’re willing to work on it in Harmony to Heartburn by Shelly Hickman.

Harmony to Heartburn (Fortytude Book 3) written by Shelly Hickman is a realistic look at relationships. Discovering the inner thoughts and emotions of those we love, and those we are perhaps are no longer enamoured with, can lead to hurt, misunderstanding, frustration or downright anger. This is basically the theme of this book. Anna has remarried, and is besotted by the quiet calm of Kiran. He has a way of quelling her worst fears. Her previous marriage to Luke crumbled with the discovery of a gender question. Now she has to learn to trust and love again. The only drawback is that Luke is still very much a part of the family, which makes it hard to forget the relationship they once shared.

Her parents and friends are also dealing with doubts of true love and concerns for certain individual members’ health. Understanding those inner emotions is as puzzling as it is worrying for onlookers. When Anna is faced with threatening behavior from her ex-husband, Luke, she battles with her own inner turmoil. Reaching out to Kiran for understanding, she at once feels overwhelmed with having to make a major decision. Like any family, each unit here deals with the day-to-day hurdles of life. The best part is that they can talk about the difficulties to try to resolve them.

There are many intriguing characters, most of which I found appealing. The story slowly reaches a conclusion after meticulously covering a multitude of problems and thwarted plans. It is an interesting look at society and the way we handle relationships. Shelly Hickman has obviously done much research to enable her to write in such detail. Definitely a book to help anyone look at family issues with a new perspective.