Book Review: Maybe in Another Life

by: Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is a neat little book about Hannah, who feels she has fully messed up her life and moves home to Los Angeles. She is staying with her best friend and they go out her second night back. She meets up with her old high school boyfriend. There are two choices presented, stay out with Ethan or go home with Gabby. The rest of the book jumps back and forth on two distinct timelines. One, she goes home with Gabby and Ethan hooks up with one of Gabby's friends. Hannah is hit by a car and must work on recovery. In the other one she goes home with Ethan and they begin an intense love affair until she finds out she is pregnant by the married man she had been dating previously. Will Ethan stay or run? Either way, Hannah is having the baby.

It was interesting the things that stayed the same and the things that changed. Because each chapter jumps back and forth, you really have to pay attention. If there's one thing people might dislike about this book, it's that. Personally, I loved it. It has a predictable flow, and it's easy enough to keep track of.

This book surprised me. I thought I had an idea on what was going to happen, but nope...I was wrong. I was pleasantly surprised on both storylines, and appreciated what Hannah went through in both. Gabby had her own issues, and that was an interesting thing to watch as well. Hannah's one choice leads to other choices, and has effects on everyone around her. Her story changes everyone's story, too.

Book Review: After I Do: A Novel

by: Taylor Jenkins Reid

I kind of accidentally got this book to review. I didn't sign up for it, but Booksparks sent me the link from NetGalley. Hey, free book! No I didn't feel bad, I knew I'd review it for them.

I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. BookSparks kept talking about would you walk away from your marriage for a year? What would you do? Stuff like that. Well, marriage takes work. So, no I don't think walking away from it for any given time is a good idea if you expect to keep it going. Of course I have children so my perspective is also quite different from the main character.

I also think they blew the "I don't love you anymore" out of proportion. They didn't stop loving each other, not even for a minute. I mean, he kept writing her e-mails, he never changed his password. Wait, did I mention he didn't send them? They were collecting in his drafts folder. She kept logging in and reading them. Then she did the same thing, writing to him and saving the drafts. They really did miss each other. Didn't stop them from dating, though. That's the part I don't see a couple coming back from. Jealousy is never a healthy emotion.

So I don't think they stopped loving each other, they forgot how to talk to each other. Or they never really learned. He loved her so much he didn't want to tell her when he was sick of eating a certain kind of food. She loved him so much that she didn't want to tell him that she hated going to a ball game. The resentment just kept building because neither of them would speak up. That can happen. It's a difficult lesson to learn. In fact, we are still working on it in this house. I get that.

I loved that her family didn't just let her off the hook. They loved Ryan, they loved Lauren and told her that he was a part of the family. I don't know if they knew what was going to happen, but until it was final either way they weren't willing to let him go completely. Especially her brother. Ryan was there for him at a time when he really needed a man in his life.

I loved how the book dealt with not only Lauren and Ryan's issues, but the issues in the whole family. Lauren has one sister and one brother, their father left when they were little. I think that made it difficult for all 3 to have relationships when they had never really seen an intact loving home.

I just really loved all the characters, even the ones that got on my nerves. It was a book about a great family, a close family. And a loving marriage going through a rough patch. There were quite a few areas where I didn't know where they would end up. I mean, can you really walk away from your spouse for a year, date other people and then just come back together like nothing had happened?

This is a good one, I totally recommend it. It's not heavy on the romance, but there is a touch here and there. And not just for Lauren, either.