1.7 Stars 

During a trip to IKEA, Emma blurts that she wants space from Rob and their twenty-six years of marriage. Rob is not sure what the problem is but he agrees to Emma’s condition –a year of separation with no contact between them. 

As they go their separate ways for a year, both realize a few things and make some decisions. Can their marriage survive the Gap Year? 

The story comes in Emma and Rob’s third-person POVs. 

NGL, I’m not the target audience for the book, but the premise was so good that I had to read it! I went expecting two outcomes—they would realize their mistakes, recognize their love, and get back together, or accept that they grew apart too much and end the relationship as mature adults. What I got was a mess with a WTF ending. 

The first chapter has the IKEA scene from both POVs. It establishes the setup right away and the gap year starts soon afterward. So far good. It seems like both have made mistakes and need to sort things out. 

Then, we get alternate chapters from Emma and Rob’s POVs. Guess what? It took very little time to dislike Emma and the feeling worsened as the story progressed. Did she make even one right decision about her life? No! 

Rob sounds like a typical complacent middle-aged man happy with his stagnancy and would rather be an ostrich than have a meaningful conversation. However, he starts to accept his flaws and makes an effort to become better. Moreover, he loves Emma (and stays loyal). 2 stars coz his arc was at least a bit realistic, and the cover is the best part of the book. 

Now, our heroine… what do I say about her? I don’t know if she is supposed to be an inspiration or an example. We sure could learn what not to do and how not to be. For someone who claims to have standards and integrity, she doesn’t display them even once throughout the book. In fact, she thinks she’s some flawless perfection and refuses to even acknowledge that she may also be responsible for the dampening of her marriage. Twice her friend tries to make her see her truth but nope. How dare someone judge her when she is the only one supposed to judge others? The audacity of it! And there’s infidelity as well. 

Despite the slow pacing and the unsuccessful attempts at providing backstories, I continued to read hoping for a decent ending. 

Nope, cheated again! What the heck is that even? What’s the purpose of the story? Where is the FMC’s growth? Whatever little changes she made could have been done even when she was with the hubby. Makes no sense! The whole thing reminds me of badly written Reddit AITA posts. *shudder* 

The best way to define the FMC would be a pre-menopausal judgmental woman who wants the perks of being single without losing the status of being married. Wonder what she has against divorce? 

 

To summarize, The Marriage Gap Year should have been an introspective and heartwarming read about character growth, self-discovery, and love. However, it is none of these (and definitely not hilarious as stated in the blurb). You might like it better if you belong to the women-can-do-no-wrong-and-men-are-always-wrong category. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Further Publishing, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. 

#NetGalley #TheMarriageGapYear