This is my fourth
Penny Reid novel, and I appreciate how she adds depth to storylines 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 sees 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 great 1-click!
