Day: March 13, 2020

I wanted to like this book. The premise was promising, and the tagline was intriguing.

Unfortunately, everything mentioned in the blurb occurred in the first quarter of the book. After that, things seemed to drag on for much too long.

That’s not to say that there weren’t good things in the book. I liked the relationship between Jem and her mom. I could relate to Jem’s realization that she needed to be strong for her mom (instead of always relying on her mom for strength). That’s something that I think every adult deals with as their parents age. Several touching moments between the two of them made me think of my relationship with my mother.

I also thought that Jem and Leanne had some good moments. Their friendship was close, and Leanne served as a sort of Jiminy Cricket/conscience to Jem (which Jem badly needed). However, not all of Leanne’s advice was helpful.

Enter Mitch. The best thing I can say about him is “Beware of Tinder – even if you know the person from school.”

I don’t have a lot to say about Ben either. I thought at the beginning that he might be the smartest of the group, having escaped Jem’s toxicity. But I was wrong about that, too.

I think my real challenge is that Jem wasn’t exactly likable, and her reliance on alcohol  (without judgment) became annoying. It was pretty apparent that alcohol was a crutch, making her a functional alcoholic, yet everyone around her seemed to enable her. That was bothersome.

I also never got a good grasp of where the story wanted to go. From the tagline, I was expecting something a little more “angst-y.” While there were moments of pure emotion, those were more between Jem and her mom, not either of the men Jem was involved with (which seemed odd). I also thought that Jem and Leanne verged on rom-com best friend banter sometimes, which threw me off-kilter.

I was happy to see some resolutions, but overall this book just didn’t do it for me. Other readers may have a different experience, however.

Author Bio

Anna had a brush with ‘fame’ as a magician’s assistant back in 1977. She later decided that being sawn in half by her magical performing father, at barely 6 months old, was too submissive a role. She vowed to channel the trauma into something much more pro-actively creative. Having failed at acting, singing and professional murder mystery parties (she was ALWAYs the one to die!), she fell to something much more solitary: writing. Anna lives on a dairy farm in Cornwall with her two children, her husband, and her ex-racing greyhound, Olive Dog.