Welcome back to another review! Another great adult fiction novel that is perfect for a summer read. To be honest, I was not so sure I was going to like this book. I had my hopes up that it would be better than I expected. Well... it was. I will without a doubt add it to my Favorites List. The audience for this book is probably not for everyone. If you are a young teen you might find this book trivial, sad and probably boring. This book involves all adults with tragic events and real adult problems. With that being said, I found the book delightful. So let me tell you something about it.
The book opens up with a punch. The death of Tess and Greg. They are part of a larger group of friends, consisting of Chief&Andrea, Delilah&Jeffery, Addison&Phoebe. These 4 couples were a close knit group living in Nantucket. They have a fairy tale friendship. But underneath what seems to be 4 perfect coupled lives, are complex patterns that are tattered and sown over. There are secrets upon secrets that make you wonder about all adult couple friendships.
When Tess and Greg die in a tragic sail boating accident, whatever strength the group had left was completely swept away. Andrea and Tess were more like sisters than cousins. Andrea fell into a depression. Along with Delilah who was in love with Greg, and Addison who was in love with Tess. As you can start to tell, those people are not their spouses. Each couple had their own tattered weaves to sow because no one was faithful, no one truly wanted the other spouse. The grass seemed greener on the other side.
The book was organized into the point of view of each character. This style was perfect and quite honestly awesome. I loved being able to get inside the head of each of the characters, completely, as if I was them. It was truly remarkable. I felt what they felt and at the same time was taking on a third party role of wanting to help and save the friendships that were left. It was an emotional journey.
Tess and Greg left behind their twins, a boy and girl, who ended up living with Chief&Andrea. The twins ultimately unite them to repair the bonds that were broken. What seemed at first to be some murder mystery, turned into 3 sets of friends trying to cope with enormous amounts of grief and finding themselves at the same time. I thought the mystery of Tess and Greg's death was going to be further looked into however, it ended up just being deemed an accident even though the evidence seemed the contrary.
There are dozens of mini stories throughout this book that make you fall in love with each character. There are moments of pure happiness and of sorrow, however, I think the book was beautifully intertwined and created a great lesson for all of us to appreciate life and the people that you love the most. The book was very scandalous which I think ultimately saved the book for me. It could have been a huge flop but it is definitely a page turner. Highly recommend for adults or if you like mature reads.
Let me know what you think or any suggestions that you may have for me, not only reading but what you would like me to write or see more of. I will keep trying to entertain!
** Next up will be the ever popular "Something Borrowed" By Emily Giffin. This was also adapted into a major motion picture if you didn't already know. I'm really excited to see what this is all about since I haven't seen the movie either. Please join me ! :) **
