A birthday lament... What exactly is middle age? Heroine Jackie Delgado is a high school biology teacher with grown sons, the youngest just entering college. Dealing with empty-nest syndrome and an ex-husband who not only threw her over for the younger-trophy-wife but FLAUNTS her at all family gatherings is enough to depress anyone, but Jackie Delgado has a biting, witty sense of humor that immediately captures a reader.

She meets the hero, police officer Mark Brennan, at OfficeMax. Both getting ready for the new school year, buying supplies. His youngest daughter’s in Jackie’s Biology class. Sparks fly, but it’s not until she’s set up by a fellow teacher on a blind date that they actually go out.

Turning Thirty-Twelve is told in first-person from Jackie’s POV. It is laugh-out-loud funny. Seriously, filled with all the real life ups and downs that readers experience in their lives and make it easy to relate to the characters. Mark’s a widower, whose wife passed away from breast cancer. His oldest daughter is classmates with Jackie’s youngest son and they end up dating. Jackie can’t cook, with hilarious results at Thanksgiving.

These are not perfect people. They do not have perfect, grandiose lives. They are real people doing the best that they can. Meeting and falling in love when they both believed “this is it – my life is set” took them both by surprise. The underlying theme in this book is you’re never too old to love, and life is a constant adventure you should embrace. I guarantee you’ll laugh a lot, weep a bit, want to holler at a hard-headed cop a time or two, and walk away completely changed.

You have GOT to grab this book by Sandy James. It’s a total keeper.