This is my fourth Penny
Reid novel, and I appreciate how she adds depth to story lines and to main
characters. Her books do not settle for having either of those key story
elements be dumb and two-dimensional.
Elizabeth, our protagonist, is fulfilling her
residency as an ER doctor, working her butt off, spending one wine
glass-clutching night a week with her knitting group, occasionally “using” guys
in casual relationships from which she simply wanted sex for just a couple of
months at a time.
One subplot is Elizabeth’s friendship with her dear
friend Janie. The two have known each other for ten years and currently see
their relationship adjusting around Janie’s engagement to Quinn, the head of a
local security firm. This is an understandable experience, of course, and with
Elizabeth having her stubborn, immature fear of romantic love ever since the
death of her high school boyfriend, Garrett, the first thief of her heart, this
change is not just realistic but reassuring, because I feel it helps me see
Elizabeth as an adult, that dealing with her roommate Janie’s new lifestyle balances
out her struggle with her changing feelings for childhood friend/bully Nico. I
look at this woman with sympathy, amusement and hope for her happy ending.
After all, she has herself convinced that she can only have one romantic love
in her lifetime, a fact that is revealed to her knitting group eventually, and
I greatly appreciate their responses. A woman needs her great, experienced,
caring friends to call her out on a silly idea and talk her down from the ledge
she’s made that idea into. Many of us humans are such social creatures after
all. She’s not exactly the person she saw herself as.
Also, it’s refreshing that the issue keeping
Elizabeth and Nico apart is a well-written, naïve belief on her part that a
person has one real love in life and that the boy she dated in high school was
her one and only, therefor she is telling herself countless times over the
years that she is rather dark, a user, a slut with her heart permanently shut
down in the romance department. Nico’s very open about his feelings to the
point where I empathize and, upon the second reading of the novel, thought
about hanging a medal around his neck, something to commemorate his brave play
to win the trust and commitment of a stubborn woman. In chapter 24, he states
his intentions for the second time and doesn’t have to wait long for the
response. She takes a moment alone to freak out, and I really like the
following line: “My mind couldn’t settle on one thought for any length of time;
it was like being showered in fortune cookie slips and trying to read them all
at once”.
I like that Elizabeth is weird and, like me, a fan of
boy bands. She encounters plenty of change in this book and tackles it, whether
it is due to a desire to grow or an inability to ignore it. She keeps having to
confront herself eleven years after the death of her boyfriend. The woman works
very hard and meets her own needs until a reunion with Nico upends her. Good
thing he’s such a strong, interesting, decent guy, making this ER doctor’s
lingerie-clad disorientation very worthwhile.
This story was very entertaining for me. Penny Reid
is not to be overlooked. She makes an e-book purchase worth every second you
spend staring at a digital screen. It’s a good choice, recommended!
No comments:
Post a Comment