This book is an intensely emotional journey that had all
kinds of emotions churning and bubbling up in us.
Charlee Parker is an artist with her own studio. Her proficiency
is the female form, the nude female form, specifically. She is involved with a
guy, Chris, for about ten months but holds a secret quietly in her heart from
him. A secret of loving someone else and pining for the other person for five
years. The other person is Alexandra Woodson. Charlee and Alex met in college
and fell in love immediately and promised each other forever. Life got in to
the way of their promise to each other when Alex went away to the other end of
the country for her internship. The distance and Alex’s lack of time took toll
on their relationship but when Alex decided to take a permanent job in the same
office, it broke them. Five years thence, Alex is back in town having shifted
for her work. She is with Kari now but harbours the same love for Charlee that
she always had. When Charlee and Alex meet again it is in front of a giant nude
of Alex that Charlee has painted. That meeting sets them on a slippery slope of
longing, awkward, hurting (especially their current partners) and finding their
way back to each other.
We loved Charlee. Didn’t like Alex much. But the ‘us’ that
the two of them create together is magical. Their chemistry is phenomenal.
However, we felt rather disturbed (remember, we said this
one sets emotions churning?) by Alex’s cheating of Kari and are left wondering
what was the right thing? We loved Charlee so we wanted her to get her happy
ending. But Kari was such a lovely lady that she did not deserve her partner to
just check out on her, not be present and above all, we felt her love should’ve
been fully returned too. So we are still uncertain about what would’ve been an
ideal scenario in the circumstance created by the author.
Charlee and Chris were not the same level of problem because as
soon as Charlee acknowledges that for her it has always been and will always be
Alex, she has the decency to tell Chris and break-up with him. Alex, on the other
hand, stays with Kari saying and doing nothing, but just not being present with
Kari. This was quite awful. Plus there is this whole group of people who want
Charlee to tell Alex that she loves her so that Alex feels comfortable knowing
Charlee is waiting and then she can
break-up with Kari. Seriously? Alex’s own emotions are not strong enough that
she has to have an army looking out for her and for Charlee to create a soft spot
for her?
There is a huge amount of angst (which felt especially drawn
out excessively by Alex towards the end) but there are just so many sweet
moments peppering the narrative. It grabs you and draws you in so much that you’re
likely to be unable to put it down and actually have a hangover of emotions for
quite a while. Clearly, a must read.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
