It's the day mothers either look forward to, or dread. Hallie Pierpont's daughter Emily is eighteen-years-old, and has moved into the college dormitory. That's it, the last baby. Finally Hallie and her husband can give each other the undivided attention sorely missed during their career building and child rearing years. Except now that their two children have flown the coup, Bill announces with as much finesse as a mediocre actor at a school recital that he wants a divorce. If that isn't the worst of it, he hands her the car keys, steps out of the car, and into his new life with his new much younger girlfriend.

After a period of mourning and binging on way too many Oreo cookies, Hallie does some deep soul searching. If she made a mistake with her husband of over twenty years, who's to say that she didn't make a mistake with the earlier men that she had loved? What if she had chosen another? Where would they be now? How different would her life have been?

There were four different men that she had lost her heart to before changing her mind and settling down with her husband. If there was a way to meet each again, would she? Could she?

On a disastrous hiking trip, her savior turns out to be a good friend of Eric Richmond, now a wealthy, business driven man. If she had wanted a man capable of providing her with the best of everything, Eric would be her man. When Eric calls and asks her out, it'll be good to remember old times. Thus the search begins for her first loves.

Returning to college from Europe, Hallie promised to keep in communication with Barry Stern. It isn't long before his colorful, worldly, and artistic letters stopped coming, and hers had been returned to sender. He simply dropped from sight. So with the help of a private detective, he's found. Breaking the long silence, she introduces herself to him again.

His name is Kevin Talbert. Her first love lives in Virgin Gorda. What this man lacks in his portfolio, he makes up for in stamina. Stella's Groove is nothing compared to Hallie when Kevin enters the picture. Readers get yourself a tall drink before you read these scenes.

Eric, Barry, Kevin, Dick, or Bill? Whom would Hallie choose? Even her children get into the act causing confusion and misunderstandings. I kept turning the pages in this emotional searing and fun packed novel. I wondered throughout the book: Would Hallie re-new a love? Would she get back with Bill? Or would she move on? Janice Kaplan and Lynn Schnumberger do a good job in answering these questions to a satisfying conclusion in THE MEN I DIDN'T MARRY.

Book Summary

Following the unexpected demise of her marriage, Hallie Lawrence Pierpont decides to travel down memory lane to visit the great loves of her past. But will her past lead her to the great love of her future?