The cover of this book is absolutely stunning. It’s beautiful blend of the bliue night sky into pink, the silhouette and the big moon with the pretty font is simply perfection.
On the book’s contents however I had mixed feelings. For the most part I enjoyed it. The writing is really good and easy to read but there’s part of me that also feels a little frustrated and I think this was mostly down to Alf, and in part, Kate.
Where do I start with Alf? There was nothing likable in him in the first half of the book, and then in the second half there are glimmers of hope for a few pages, but then he goes back to being annoying and selfish! He is so sure that he ‘knows’ Kate and completely oblivious that she might prefer something different, not helped by Kate and Alf’s complete communication failure, which isn’t entirely Alf’s fault, but it’s more how he constantly tells Kate that he knows her, why is he trying to convince her, why not show her? By, I don’t know actually doing something for her for once. Instead he just grumbles to himself how annoying Kate is by having a glass of wine with his friend (whose staying with them) and SHOCK HORROR, there wasn’t even a dinner prepared. Are we back in the 1950’s now? He seems to want someone to be the perfect little housewife and agree with him on everything. God forbid they have an interest outside of his ideals.
Take Kate’s art for instance, you first see an instance of his obvious disinterest in her old hobby, and does this throughout the book. He just was unbelievably unsupportive, he didn’t comment on it, just tolerated it as if it was a phase that people go through and soon Kate would grow out of it and continues on her mission to put dinner on the table as is her duty. In some obscure way, in what he said to her, reminded me of Old Salem if they were paranoid about painting instead of witchcraft.
Kate on the whole is quite likable, nothing massively stands out about her, but she is reasonably relatable, but I cannot figure out why she has been with Alf for 7 years. Inside she realises he’s not treating her nicely with her artwork and various other things, but, due to her exceptional kindness (which it feels we’re constantly reminded of), she just takes it and convinces herself that she loves him. As I said they don’t really communicate effectively, and when they argue, nothing really gets resolved. I don’t think I could stay for 7 years convincing myself everything is hunky-dory.
As I said for the most part (despite my ranting) I enjoyed this book, I really liked the side characters especially Lil and Viv, and I really really liked the epilogue! I would definitely read Carrie Stone’s books in the future.
Published by: HarperImpulse
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.
