There were never such devoted sisters…

Dr. David Lambert and his wife, Brianna, received the ultimate Christmas gift from her fraternal twin. They gratefully accepted it, of course, because everyone knows you can’t return a baby like an itchy sweater. Yet, that’s essentially what Brianna does when she has a meltdown and unexpectedly divorces David. She runs from their home in Redemption, Pennsylvania, and leaves their surrogate—her sister, Casey—pregnant with his little bundle.

When David chose her beautiful twin over her, Casey McIntyre hid her hurt behind a wall of sarcasm. Now that her sister has divorced her husband, it’s increasingly difficult to remember why the hunky pediatrician is supposed to be off limits—especially since Brianna doesn’t seem to want him or care if Casey and he get involved.

David always liked and admired his selfless ex-sister-in-law—despite that the sassy preschool teacher is always busting his chops. Consequently, after his wife bails on marriage and motherhood, it’s only natural he turns to Casey for sympathy. Unfortunately, the exasperating pixie becomes more irresistible with each day she carries his child. He already mistook lust for love once and jumped way too fast into marriage. He’s not about to botch up his life that way again.

Casey wants whatever happiness she can grab, whether it’s temporary or not. The only problem is, if she lets herself love her baby (or David), what will happen to her when her sister inevitably realizes her mistake and returns to Redemption?

There is so much going on here, I don’t even know where to start. Well, the obvious place is the fact that there are two sisters fall for the same man. I’m an only child so I don’t know how I would react in such a situation … or how I would feel about sleeping with her ex. There are so many possible problems that could come up, but I think that Kellogg handles it very well. I still got a little icked out but that was going to happen regardless. She delivers Casey and David’s growing feelings with care and heart, making it a very believable transition.

Of course, this book has so much else going on but it’s delivered in a way that doesn’t feel crowded or rushed. As a very minor side story we have Casey’s friend, Andy, and David’s friend, Paul (who is also Casey’s doctor). Andy was burned by her ex and isn’t sure she can trust Paul but it’s fun to watch the two together. As a much more major side story, there are Brianna’s reasons for leaving and coming back. It’s a pretty big spoiler, one I didn’t really expect, so I won’t go into details in case you don’t already know. But it is a biggie and brings forward a lot of complications for not only her and Casey but also for David.

Then of course you have Casey and David themselves. Not only do they have to deal with Brianna leaving, but Casey is pregnant. Surrogacy has so many inherent complications but throwing in a divorce just makes it worse. And as their feelings grow, Casey has to wonder does David want her or just the baby. It’s a complete muddle but one handled quite well by Kellogg. By the time the book was over, I was rocking the new dynamics in the family. I think that it takes some very deft writing to make it all work so well.

And through it all you have some serious issues of family – resentment between siblings and parents, selfishness and selflessness, love, forgiveness and truth. There are some pretty complex things swirling beneath the surface not only between Casey and Brianna or the twins and David, but also between all three of them and their parents. Some soul searching and a few hard truths that needed to be said bring to light some heavy things that have been wearing them all down for a long time. But with love and caring, everything gets set to rights.

No Exchanges, No Returns is a complex new spin on The Gift of the Magi. One that made me laugh but also had me tearing up. It’s wonderfully compelling to get to know this complicated group and work through all of the intricacies needed to get them all to a happy ending.

(This is Book 4 in Kellogg’s “Return to Redemption” series but it can definitely stand alone. There are a couple of characters that I looked up and realized that they were in previous books, but they were just passing through with small hints on their stories. I don’t think there is anything that would impact your enjoyment of this one if you picked it up first.)