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A few weeks ago I shared my first post on what books I read during the summer. This past summer I really dialed down and read as many books as I possibly could. I am still trying to keep up with reading but life has been pretty busy and haven’t had as much time as I would like to sit down and read. I finally finished this book and LOVED it. I will be giving my honest review about it soon. Until then, here is part 2 of my summer book reviews.
A year after her husband’s tragic death, Evvie Drake keeps locked in her big house in a small town in Maine, isolated from the world. When, through her best friend Andy, Evvie finds herself with an unexpected roommate- a Major League baseball player from the Yankee’s named Dean Tenney. Dean is suffering from what they call “yips” in baseball. Both Dean and Evvie start to lean on each other for support and friendship. As they both move on from the past they deal with the secrets that they keep and the brokenness they feel. It’s about friendship, love, support, hope, and comebacks.
Review and Spoilers
I really loved this book. It was one that I couldn’t put down because I wanted to see how Evvie and Dean’s friendship turns into love. The book was pretty predictable as to what was going to happen but I was still flipping through the pages wanting to know how it all plays out. There isn’t any real conflict in the story, yes there are bumps in the road but nothing too dramatic. At times I thought Andy, Evvie and Dean’s best friend, would become jealous of their relationship and that would cause a riff, but it never happens. The problem between their friendship is caused by kept secrets. I do like the fact that two people, Dean and Evvie, who both feel hopeless and broken for different reasons find a bond out of an unlikely connection. It was also interesting to see Evvie deal with the guilt of not being upset over her husband’s tragic death, as we know she was about to leave him. So while she locked herself away from the world, when everyone mistook her guilt for grief. I also liked seeing them both give each other hope and support even though they themselves were suffering. This book really is about hope and pulling yourself out of pain and anger no matter what. Because life is too short to be stuck in wallowing in such sadness, it’s meant to be lived. To take what life has given you and make lemons out of lemonade. Anyway, from the moment Dean moved into Evvie’s house I knew they would end up together. Even when he went back to New York, I knew he would eventually come back to Maine for Evvie. I loved their growing romance. This book felt like a Hallmark movie and I am all for it.
On a cold winter day in December Laurie is riding the bus home for Christmas. At a bus stop, she looks out the window, only to lock eyes with a man who Laurie instantly knows is the one. Hesitant and scared to walk off the bus to say hello while wishing with all her might that this gorgeous man hops on, only for it to be too late as the bus drives away. For a year Laurie and her best friend and roommate Sarah search for the bus guy. Fate finally brings Laurie and the bus guy, Jack, together again on the following December, only to find out he is Sarah’s new boyfriend. We follow through years of love, friendship, heartbreak, and missed opportunity with Jack, Laurie, and Sarah.
Review and Spoilers
I couldn’t put this book down! I had to know what happens between Laurie and Jack as they both remember that fateful day, yet they can not act on their feelings as they both have tremendous love and respect for Sarah. I really liked that the writer did not make Sarah out to be a bad person. She was a great friend and girlfriend. Sarah was never portrayed as a villain, she was someone you were rooting for to be happy. Jack, on the other hand, I wasn’t a big fan of. To be honest I didn’t think he was good enough for Laurie. II thought Oscar, although yes he and Laurie had a few differences and his mother hated her, was a better man. He was much more caring and supportive of Laurie. Jack, on the other hand, treated Laurie and Sarah like garbage during his depression and other aspects of his life. He was so negative all of the time. It also made no sense to me that Laurie and Oscar’s marriage ended because she was adamant about not moving to Brussels because she wanted to stay in London for her job and to be closer to her family, while it ends up seeming she is willing to move to Ireland to be with Jack. That is life- you can’t explain why someone who is perfect on paper is not the one for you. You can’t explain what your heart wants, you just have to trust it and follow. I knew that Jack and Laurie would eventually end up together, it was inevitable. But how they finally got together was exciting! This book is about missed opportunities– we all have them. I definitely have a few that keep me up at night. The moments that you kick yourself for not taking the chance. How your life would be completely different if you had had the courage to do the thing you feared or say the things you wanted to say. I love the idea of how fate brought them together, even if it took 10 years. It’s romantic and I love a good story about love and fate.
Susan Green likes order and control. She has an ideal job, a flat that is perfect for one, and an arrangement with a man for comfort, intimacy, and cultural experience with no strings attached. At age 40 Susan finds herself and her life spinning out of control as she deals with the sudden death of her mother and the deed to her home, and the unwanted pregnancy. The story is about Susan trying to keep control of her life when everything around her is changing, and she is in a feud with her less-than responsible brother Edward. She finds solace and support from two unlikely people– her neighbor and her brother’s best friend Rob. This is about letting go of control and the past, opening yourself up to love and friendships, and accepting life as it comes.
Reviews and Spoilers
This was my least favorite book that I read this past summer. It wasn’t that it was awful, I didn’t dislike it enough to stop reading it. But I didn’t start to enjoy it until the last 100 pages. The problem was that every character, especially Susan, is intolerable. I didn’t know who to root for because I definitely was not rooting for Susan nor was I rooting for Edward. The whole fight over the deed to the house was absurd– let it go Susan!–And to only find out that Edward was just messing around with her the entire time and had to intentions on keeping the house… you have got to be kidding me. It wasn’t until we find out that Susan’s Aunt Sylvia is really her biological mother who had an affair with Susan’s father. What kept me reading the book until the storyline picks up, was because I wanted to know the outcome of the deed and how Susan deals with the unwanted pregnancy. What I was really disappointed in was the lack of connection between Rob and Susan. You know that they end up together, seems pretty inevitable, but there really isn’t a romantic story to it. Rob tells Susan how he feels, she shoots him down only to realize after she gave birth that she can tolerate being with Rob in an “ok I guess we can do this” kind of away. After finishing the book and reflecting on the story, I do find it to hold a great lesson; how we can’t keep such a tight lease on life, we have to let things go. We have to let ourselves be open to possibilities and happiness. That we can’t stay stuck in our routine and keep order because that is not what life is about. Life is about changes and how we deal with curveballs. Although the book was at times hard to get through, the overall meaning behind the storyline was great.