⭐⭐⭐☆
The cover and the title make this book sound like a breezy
romance. But that is not what it is. This is a fairly serious theme of long
term partners of fifteen years throwing in the towel on their relationship,
struggling to move on and then finding their way back to each other. The power
of the written word is its ability to make a reader think, feel and learn about
emotions and experiences that they may not necessarily encounter themselves. In
that, this book succeeds not in terms of the writing or characters, but in
terms of the story itself.
Hannah Carter and Sasha Bashton have been together for
fifteen years. A cancer scare a few years back resulted in Hannah having a
double mastectomy and spiralling into depression. Hannah is a person who runs
away from emotion and an outcome of her health issues is that she pushes away
Sasha more and more and turns to drinking. A few years of this and Sasha cannot
take it anymore, so she ends it. Sasha moves in with a friend but with a kidney
problem, she is struggling with health issues herself. Hannah and Sasha
continue having feelings for each other but instead of repairing their
relationship, they try to move on with other partners.
The MCs are understandable at times and utterly frustrating
at others. Hannah’s friend, Mickey, is awful at all times. Some carnage of
other people’s emotions, particularly the completely lovely lady, Brandy, whom
Hannah dates could’ve been avoided. We are not quite sure about how the two MCs
have sex with other people when they are in love with each other. It also would’ve
been nice to have seen some more rebuilding of the relationship by Hannah.
What however remains the most important message of this book
is that love needs constant nurturing no matter how many years you’ve been
together. Your partner needs and deserves the same attention that you lavished
on them at the start even decades later. Talking, sharing and trusting are
always imperative.
An uncommon theme, an important read.
⭐⭐⭐☆
