An excellently written book that deals with highly
prevalent, sensitive subject matter.
Daria Grayson, mother of two year old, Ella, is married
to a violent, abusive man, Mitchell. She finally divorces him and by the time
Ella is four, she's been divorced a year, but still haunted by fear. Her best
friend, Molly, is her strength, support, anchor and pretty much everything. She
also has excellent support system in her mother-in-law, Mary, who suffered the
same fate at her husband's hands that Daria did with Mitchell.
Working in Kindness
and Care For All, an outreach centre, Daria's world is contained within her
parents, sister, brother-in-law, Ella, Mary and most of all, Molly. Molly
forces Daria for an evening out and introduces her to her cousin, Charlotte
Garrett, an ex go-go dancer, currently managing the eatery they are in.
Charlotte is stunning, playful and totally alive.
Under Molly's aegis, Daria and Charlotte meet again and
Daria feels stirrings of an unacknowledged part of her -- a possibility that
she might be gay. Charlotte is out and clearly interested in Daria.
Daria slowly comes into her own outgrowing fears and finding
forgiveness -- all leading to happiness.
This book, written in first person, is entirely about
Daria's journey albeit with a satisfying romance with Charlotte.
Daria, Ella and Charlotte are intensely appealing. The
relationship between Daria and Charlotte is lovely. There is romance, enjoyable
dialogues and empathiseable interactions, lovely connection between Charlie and
Ella, great sex scenes...yet, the real relationship is between Daria and
Molly.
Hard drinking, frequently doping, entirely in your face
Molly is Daria's oldest friend who has been with her through her nightmare
marriage, got her out of it and is her rock forever. In fact, even after Daria
and Charlotte get together, Molly is way more there in every step Daria takes
than Charlie is. Molly and Daria have some sort of a weird platonic-romantic
relationship that honestly didn't need anyone else.
Trigger warning for this book: domestic abuse and intimate
partner violence. Painful, physical assault. This is a very big trigger warning
because it is the core of the book. Dealing with the violence and the aftermath
of having lived through it is the crux of Daria's journey. The exposure to
scary violence is introduced right in the third paragraph and is a constant
background.
Much more than a romance, this book is Ellendale shining
light on a very serious issue. Writing it as engaging fiction helps because the
reach and readers of fiction is way higher than if this was written as a blog
post, a news article or a research paper. We applaud Ellendale for this.
In every way -- as story about healing, as a first person
account of dealing and healing, as self-acceptance, as a romance -- this is
recommended.
⭐⭐⭐☆
