I think there might be a very good story buried in this book.  However, a great deal more editing is needed to find it.  It suffers greatly from wordiness.  Let me back up my critique with examples: At one point Elyssa reached into her pocket and "pulled out a handkerchief she had earlier placed there."  How else did the handkerchief get there?  She also walked over to her porch swing "that was hung out there."  How could she walk to a swing that wasn't there?  We are told in one short paragraph that the heroine's father died suddenly, unexpectedly and prematurely from a heart attack.  Shouldn't the reader be allowed to infer all these things just by mentioning his death with barely grown children, or his age at the time?  The author seems afraid to let the reader make their own conclusions, even obvious ones.