1,5 Stars
Hmm.. How do I review this book? It´s so negative, sad and at times confusing.
This book is about... well... life, love, betrayal, fears, flaws and forgiveness.
The main characters are Gwen, Will and Lisa who you get to know via their point of views. But there are also several other characters who are more or less involved with them.
The book starts with the present where Gwen just got news that turned her world upside down, news that now made her question everything- especially her husband Will, their relationship and their past. The love of her life destroyed her, hurt her, made her question herself. He wants to explain, he wants forgiveness... But how could Gwen forget? How could she forgive him? How is she supposed to live with him and the knowledge of the other human being they always wanted to have together but couldn´t? The other human being that exists now because of his betrayal.
After starting in the present, the book continues with changing point of views mainly with backflashes. It´s like it´s written from the start, when all were younger again. How they were living, how they were growing up, how they met and how everything went down. In between there are a few scenes/ pov´s that show the present of those characters, though.
Gwen was almost 18 when she and Will met each other. It was when Gwen was running from home and went to her sister. At the time, Will was her sisters "almost" fiance. The "almost" being a problem. The more time Will and Gwen spent with each other, the more they´ll started to feel sth for each other and the more Will figured out that he has more in common with Gwen than her sister. So it happens what had to happen. A heart was broken, a sister hurt but two soulmates finally came together. They are happy, they are a family, they love each other and went through everything together.
Lisa is the best friend of Chris, Will and Gwens son. After her stepdad left her mom, their life got worse. Her mom now being addicted to drugs and bringing strangers home all the time, had her growing up lonely, unhappy, miserabel and feeling unloved and unwanted. Rumors about her family swirling around didn´t help her either to live a normal life. But she had at least her 3 best friends- Her only friends who liked her for herself. Schoolproblems led her to Chris´ dad Will who was once a teacher and promised to tutor her in math. And this is what caused all the drama and the hurt.
Will loves his wife and his son. He´s happy with his life, but sth. is off. It´s the Midlife crisis- Gwen thinks. But is it really? He doesn´t know why but even though he has everything he wants and needs, he doesn´t feel alive. But he soon will. It will change soon. Temptation and seduction can be a bad thing. Especially if you´re too weak to resist. Will does things he´s not proud of. Things he wants but doesn´t want at the same time. But how can you stop sth. that makes you feel alive again?
What actually happened? Why are they all feeling the way they feel? How did Will hurt Gwen? Can Will overcome his Midlife crisis? Can Gwen forgive Will? What did Lisa do? And how did Chris find out?
I suppose you already guess but read this story and find out about those characters and their lives yourself.
My opinion (spoiler):
Hmm..... well...
The writing style was ok. It´s a plus point for an author to be brave enough to write about a story like that. About a story that shows the ugly side of life and love. But still.. there were so many things that bothered me. things that confused me and some things that didn´t seem logical to me.
It started with Gwen. The present Gwen. The book said she´s 49 but to me she rather seemed like a 65 years old. I don´t know why exactly. My Mom will be 48 in a couple of days. I kinda compared them I guess and Gwen just didn´t look, act or think like my Mom does now. I liked Gwen more when she was younger. She was funnier then, although mostly immature.
I liked Will too when he was younger and when they met first. He was still great when he was in his midlife crisis but with Lisa- he was just stupid.
I´m not a fan of Lisa. She´s stupid and immature. She acted on "butterflies". She didn´t think much of the consequences or rather didn´t care about them. It was just thinking about herself. In some way I can understand her. Somone who hasn´t had a good role model, someone who is emotionally unstable and who is lonely and hurt and feeling unloved and unwanted probably does things that won´t make sense or aren´t good. She was looking for attention. She got them, could have it, could be loved (f.e. by Chris) and love. But she chose the one she couldn´t have, she shouldn´t have. I personally think for her it was a mix of a father complex, attention seeking and power play.
I still honestly don´t know why Will gave in. When he was so happy and so in love with his family- why did he ruin it? It just didn´t make sense to me. "He wanted to feel alive"... Really I don´t get it. Someone who is in his midlife crisis is unhappy with at least something in his life. Who isn´t satisfied with whatever. I don´t know... But Midlife crisis wasn´t fitting in my eyes. To me it seemed more like Will is weak. Like he is into women who force themselves onto him. Gwen did it, Lisa did it. Gwen kissed him first, he went with it and then they spent their life together. Now Lisa did the first step, kissed him first and he also went with it. It´s either he is attracted to women who force themselves on him or Lisa reminded him of a younger Gwen when it happened. Well...Lisa reminded me at times of Gwen so that´s a possibility.
Lisas pregnancy didn´t make sense to me. How exactly did she got pregnant? The book said they had just once unprotected sex. It was in the kitchen. But they didn´t finish, because Chris caught them in the act. And the chance of getting pregnant at first try and with a bit of precum is very slim. And the timing afterwards seemed weird to me as well.
Also... I don´t understand why Lisa didn´t want to be a mother. Sure she didn´t want to be like her mother and grandmother but who said she´d be like them? And she loved Will, why wouldn´t she love her baby? So weird. And another thing that wasn´t logical to me was when she gave Gwen the adoption papers for her daughter. Erm... Why would they need to adopt the kid? Will is the biological dad. One DNA test will prove it and he´ll have all the rights. Gwen would automatically be the stepmom as they are both married. So why adoption? It´s not needed. I also hated Lisa for doing all this. Not only lost her daughter the only Mom she knew (Lisa´s aunt) and then Lisa abadoned her as well just a week after and gave her practically to strangers. If this would have happened in the real world it would be some traumatic experience for such a little girl. And at some time the truth will come out as well- it always comes out and what happens then to the kid? If I´d be in the position I wouldn´t forgive Lisa. She just proved again how immature and selfish she is. She just cares about herself and is hurting everyone and lets everyone suffer.
About Gwen... It´s ok that she forgave him but I think she forgave him too soon and also for the wrong reasons. Will broke her trust. Trust can´t be regained from one day to another. It takes time. Like it took time for her sister to forgive her. But Gwen and Will- from one moment to the other everything was fine. I didn´t like it. Didn´t like how she forgave Lisa as well. I wouldn´t have forgiven her. Especially as Lisa still loves Will.
I missed a couple of things in general. I needed more details, more thoughts and feelings, more insight. I miss the important and interesting scenes. Somehow they were skipped. For example the scene when Will and Lisa really started their sexual relationship. Who initiated it? And what was the reason why Will and Gwen lost their baby?
I think the only Characters I liked in this story were Chris and Aiden. I just wonder what kind of Illness Chris has that makes him acting like he did when he caught them. He was like another person. Is he Bipolar or sth? Things like that confused me. Things happened but I didn´t got the answers to the why, how, and so on.
There are probably more things that bothered me and I just forgot about them right now. Maybe I´ll edit my review when they come to my mind. There was just so much negativity, so much hurt and suffering that the Happy End didn´t feel like a Happy End. And that´s sad somehow.
Please don´t let my review keep you from reading this book. Tastes and opinions are always different. I will one day read another book by this author and will see if I like it better.