DNF’d at 60%

I don’t typically rate books I haven’t finished, but if I’m going to DNF a book it will usually be much earlier in the book, so I don’t feel like I have a good feel for where it’s going. Since I read more than half the book, I feel okay saying that this is a 2-Star read for me.

Why did I read so much just to DNF? Well, I’m honestly not sure. When it started out, I was intrigued by the main character’s voice. She was very snarky and sarcastic, to which I fully relate.😂😂

However, as the story went on, I found myself more and more apathetic about Lily. I can’t imagine what it would be like to suddenly lose your husband and be left with two very young children. My husband of 17 years is my best friend and to lose him would be awful. I would be distraught. Definitely to the point of needing some sort of therapy. And I know that everyone deals with trauma in a different way. But I can’t imagine being so far gone that I would need to go under psychiatric lockdown for three months when I have two children (one an infant) needing me at home. It’s just unfathomable to me. Again, I am not trying to belittle anyone who have suffered from a trauma-induced breakdown. But there was something about her character specifically that made it difficult for me to sympathize. I’m not even sure I can adequately explain it.

I also thought the romance came out of nowhere. She’s literally been in this guy’s company three times (in a class setting with a bunch of other people around) and they are at the point where they’re wanting to rip each other’s clothes off and have sex on the kitchen table while her young daughters are out in the backyard? Sorry, that doesn’t track for me. And maybe a lot of that can be explained away by the fact that she hasn’t been intimate in years and hormones and whatnot. But then she gets wishy-washy about it and he tells her, “I will wait for you. I’m a patient man, and you are very special.” Umm...she is? He’s known her for about five minutes but we’re supposed to buy that he’s so enamored of her that he’ll just wait and hope she gets her shit together?! I just don’t believe it. What it is about her that he thinks is ‘special’? Because from where I sit, she’s a selfish, self-pitying, petulant person.

There’s a part where her daughter get upset because she doesn’t remember what her father looks like because there aren’t any pictures of him around. She excuses this by saying that she hadn’t wanted to be reminded, hadn’t wanted to turn her house into a shrine. First of all, how freaking selfish?! Secondly, she IS a shrine to her husband. From the way she interacts with her family, friends, and acquaintances, it is obvious that she is totally closed off and that she intends to live the rest of her life in that manner.

There’s another part where she talks about how her late husband told her he never wanted her to find love again. Then she relates a conversation that was obviously joking in nature and uses it as evidence that her husband wouldn’t want her dating again. For someone who is so proud of her sarcastic abilities, her portrayal of this interaction as anything but light-hearted is just her being willfully obtuse.

There is also a lot of slut/sex shaming in this book, coming from the main character. Her sister is a grown woman. A consenting adult who isn’t in any kind of committed relationship. However, her sister refers to her as a slut because she had dated several men. She makes off-handed remarks and observations about her sister’s sex life throughout the book. I didn’t appreciate that at all. This is supposed to be an adult book. Why can’t we be sex-positive?

The dialogue was corny. The kids didn’t sound like any kids I know (and as the mother of a nine-year old, I’ve had some experience). And even though I didn’t finish the story, I bet I could tell it as well as someone who did. (Checked spoilery reviews...and I was right.)


I really wish I could’ve liked this book. Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me.