Dylan Prescott has been avoiding Rachel Tanner for years.  More recently, however, he's been avoiding her calls.  It is still too painful, too hard to face her and the loss of his best friend - her husband.  Gary Tanner had died in a car accident months earlier, and she had refused any help Dylan had offered.  Yet here she was seeking him out.  His heart still constricted at the sound of her voice.  The voice of his best friend's wife, his business partner's wife, and the woman he had never forgotten, but had always avoided because of Gary.  Now Gary is gone, and Rachel is seeking his help with the life insurance company who feel Gary may have committed suicide.  Dylan will help Rachel get some answers to questions that suddenly come bubbling forth about Gary's last few weeks, but can he keep avoiding the woman he has always longed for?

Rachel Tanner has always felt guilty about Dylan.  He was always there, in the shadows, in the corners of her mind and heart, ever since that forbidden kiss the night of her rehearsal dinner before her wedding to Gary nine years ago.  She had loved Gary, loved their life together, and thought Gary had, too.  Yet now, the more she seeks, the more questions arise as to who Gary really was.  Dylan's presence, his easy manner with her son, the son Gary always had little time for, the feelings that resurface but have never died, all force Rachel to reevaluate what she thought was true, the choices she made and will make and face her feelings about Dylan.  First, though, she has to let go of Gary and the only way to do that is discover Gary's past and the secrets of his own he may have been hiding.

What makes this book so extraordinary is the combination of raw emotion, pent up desires, the heartbreak of loss and the courage to face something new.  Ms. Freethy portrays Rachel's devastating loss with such feeling, we know how heartbreaking it is for her, how Wesley's inability to cope with his father's sudden death and her wariness of seeing a new man step into their lives.  Dylan is an honest man, building skyscrapers that Gary designed, seeing his own pain of loss and guilt as he tries to work through his own mixed feelings.  An interesting secondary character is Rachel's sister, Carly.  Carly seeks a life outside of the country and she hopes to do it with her art.  Art, though, is what drove their mother to leave, so Carly feels she has to keep that part of herself secret from Rachel.  Carly's one chance at leaving is to marry someone outside of her world, and to get someone to fall in love with her; she will use one of the magic apples from the orchard.  This legend of the magic apple tree weaves itself in and out of the storyline, through all characters in some shape or fashion and makes for an interesting turn of events.

This tear-jerking novel takes the pain of losing someone you loved and turns it into a chance at living.  The bond between family and friends is the real love story, but the romance between Rachel and Dylan is just too satisfying to keep it from being anywhere but on the romance shelf.  Heartwarming and life affirming, LOVE WILL FIND A WAY ranks right up there with the other deep love stories that go beyond the traditional.  Let it find a way onto your shelf.