How 'Bout Them Reads: So Happy Together

What can I say anymore? You want some sassy, sarcastic, cute from me about how I finished yet another book and what a major surprise this is? That would be a little silly since I've done it countless times now. This is my 25th book, so I think you've all heard it before. So why don't I just tell you that this was another book I got at Borders when they were going out of business for really cheap. Did I mention I made a killing getting tons of books that way? It's like the ultimate sale! Still a little sad that we no longer have a bookstore in Olathe. But that's neither here or there. We aren't talking about my love of bookstores and how I can always find at least ten books every time I go into the bookstore. We are talking about one book in particular - So Happy Together by Maryann McFadden.

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Claire Noble's dream of going to Cape Cod and following her dream of being a photographer was finally happening. She had a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to a ten-week course in Cape Cod and learn more about the craft and get her foot in the door that could lead to the photography career she always dreamed of. Then a year later she would finally be married and off to Arizona to live with the man who she thought herself lucky to have ever found.

But days before she is set to leave, her estranged daughter, Amy, shows up back at her with a big secret. Suddenly Claire finally herself conflicted. Amy just had a beautiful daughter (Rose) of her own and no where to go. Claire and her mother, Fanny, are able to convince Amy to keep Rose, but she is only able to keep Rose if Amy and Rose can live with Claire for the next six months. Now suddenly all her dreams of going to Cape Cod are dashed and she stays home to care for her daughter and granddaughter. In the process she meets John Poole, who asks her to take the photographs for an article he was writing. She reluctantly agrees but finds herself enjoying the process.

Meanwhile her mother, Fanny, and father, Joe who suffers from Parkinson's, find themselves growing farther apart and taking care of themselves is becoming harder. So they are put in an assisted care living situation where Fanny pulls farther away and any life she once had was being sucked out of her. Claire feels awful for what was happening to her parents and feels even worse when she is given an opportunity to go to Cape Cod for the fall session and follow her dreams.

So she loads up her daughter, granddaughter, mother and father and they take off for Cape Cod where they all start coming back to life. They all find a new life there. Claire who worried about pulling everyone away from what they all knew is busy following her dreams and even runs into John Poole again and finds herself attracted to him despite her impending (and suffering relationship) engagement to Rick. Fanny finds herself seeking happiness within and finds the romance she didn't realize she had. Joe finds answers to questions he had been seeking his entire life. And Amy opens up to her mother again and their family relationship heals.

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This book took me a little longer to finish because it wasn't a fast read. At points I got frustrated because there was so much internal narrative, but those moments were just as important as any dialogue. I often find that I struggle with starting books because it always seems to be the same where they go through the whole song and dance of introducing the characters and the situation and reading as much as I do, it just gets old. And when I started this book it was no different, but as always I just kept pressing through. I struggled for a bit longer because I wasn't feeling like this book was really picking up, but then I figured out that it was never going to. It was just written with the internal narrative and those conflicting emotions.

It was definitely not a bad book. I have read bad books. I know when something is a bad book and this was anything but. However, it was just a slower read than I was used to. I'm used to quicker reads, so it was actually almost refreshing to read something that wasn't. Something that pushed you a little bit. Something that you saw the problems and you saw all that was happening and almost got frustrating because you wanted to tell everyone what was happening, but you had to trust that the author was going to get the characters there. As confusing as that may seem, this may not be one of my favorite books and I may never even read this book again but I did enjoy it. I like finding those books no one else has heard up and finding the beauty in it.

25/52