There are some books that seem shorter than they are despite
covering a lot of ground. This is one of them.
Sierra Clark is a social worker with a passion for her job.
She also loves getting tattoos of chibi animals for not reason other than that
they make her feel happy. She also has mad attraction towards her preferred
tattoo artist, Jamie Winston. Jamie, older than Sierra by a dozen years,
considers herself too old and too boring for her vivacious client and tries to
keep a distance. Jamie is the oldest child of functioning alcoholics and has
taken responsibility for her parents and younger brother at a very young age. A
responsibility that she still carries. Additionally, she has the responsibility
of a teenage child, daughter of her ex-wife. But Sierra is just too winsome,
too alive, too everything to resist and despite herself, Jamie finds herself
drawn irresistibly to the younger woman. Both, Sierra and Jamie aren’t really
ready for a relationship, except that they aren’t doing ‘casual’ with each
other too well.
Jamie comes across as stodgy and pedantic in everything
including her emotions. Also, she seems to have a huge chip on her shoulder
about having been too giving and too responsible in her past. This whole
self-crowned preoccupation with seeing herself as always having taken care
makes her incredibly self-centred and incapable of really opening herself to
give, receive, embrace and accept in her interaction with Sierra. We’re sure
this wasn’t quite the personality that the author was aiming for, but this is
what Jamie turns out by the end.
In contrast, Sierra is a buoyant personality. She is alive,
open and expansive in the depth and breadth of her emotions. Though younger,
she is way more mature and sensitive to her partner. She is also wonderfully
accepting, resilient and giving – all without seeming to be impossibly unreal.
To her credit, Davids manages to make the relationship work.
Despite Jamie’s failures as a partner, you don’t feel Sierra absolutely shouldn’t be wasting her time with
Jamie. In fact, this book really underscores the truth that a person doesn’t
have to be perfect to be right for someone who chooses them.
The pacing is totally on-point. The characters are
completely developed. This one is a fast, engrossing read.
⭐⭐⭐☆★
