Odd Combo of Flavors

This book starts out with the accidental death of Tam's husband and his cousin. The tragedy unravels a spool of thread which presumably connects them all, and has deep meaning, understandably. Tam and her husband had been in the midst of finalizing their adoption of a Chinese boy at the time of the accident. Many decisions need to be made during the course of Tam's grieving, and international adoption is just the start. Of course there are family secrets, and of course there are family spats. What I found jarring about this story is that the tone is set for this somewhat melancholy backdrop--everyone grieving for someone, and then the book (to me) turned decidedly Hallmarkian in its simplistic, almost rom-com subplot. Furthermore, there was a weird intro to a character that was kind of dwelled on, that just fizzled--so why bother in the first place? I think the writer is good, but maybe better editing would have polished it up a bit more for me.