falling apart, coming together

My Ex-Life – Stephen McCauley

LGBTQ+, relationships, family life, divorce, Fiction.

Rating 8/10

David’s life starts falling apart as well as his ex-wife, Julie, is falling apart as well. Julie calls him to come help her with not only her life but with her daughter’s educational life and future. Her to be ex-husband wants her to sell the house, but she wants the house. David settles his business and flies out to assist her. As time flies, they reconnect like the best friends they were, even reminiscing the good days. Julie’s daughter, Mandy, was fired from her job and her acquaintance who keeps offering her a job gives her an opportunity. Except Mandy thinks that this opportunity wasn’t any better than her previous job. All of them must face life and take one day at a time.

My boyfriend and I were book shopping and came across this book in the “exceptional value” section at our local Barnes and Nobles bookstore. He found it first and read the synopsis and he told me about it. I had my attention turned to the novel. I was intrigued to read and wanted to get the book, so I did. After reading I found myself feeling that this book was going to be slow and boring, but I was half wrong. It’s slow but a good read. I love the interrelationships between all the characters as well as a meaningful plot. I found myself smiling and tearing up throughout the novel. However, I was expecting one plot, but instead, got another which I don’t mind. This novel shows how daily life challenges us and we must persist. I do recommend this novel for those who are looking for a slow yet intriguing book. This novel is great if one is wanting a quick read or wanting to slowly enjoy a novel before bed.

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Memories… Forgotten and Regained Here

What Alice Forgot – Liane Moriarty

Fiction, memory loss, amnesiacs, memory, divorce, domestic, life change, children, family, drama

Rating 10/10

After a nasty fall at a spin class, Alice Love had forgotten an entire decade of her life. Meaning she only remembers marrying Nick and becoming pregnant. She already has three kids and getting a divorce. Shocking! Alice is trying to navigate with her amnesia and getting reacquainted with her life. It isn’t easy for Alice to try to grasp why she is going through a divorce and is apart of the parent club at her children’s school. Her own children help Alice put the pieces together as well as understand the whole divorce as well as introduce themselves to Alice. As time progresses, Alice slowly remembers what happened in the past ten years of her life. A best friend died. An affair happened with her best friend’s husband with another woman. Even all the gossip with the parents at the elementary school. An incident occurred with Alice and Nick’s child and they reminisce the past. Nick offers to give their marriage another chance. Even their children want them to get back together too. At an event, all Alice’s forgotten memories come flooding back. Things go back to normality.

This book was incredible and was so addicting, a real page turner. I was sort of expecting that amnesia would be the issue and it would resolve through the narrative. Anyways I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it made me laugh and cry a little. It was a very different genre of book that I ever had read and becoming a fan of this author for her intricate writing and storytelling. Moriarty struck me in places and told the story perfectly as well as made me ponder about life in general. Life can happen at any moment, just got to adapt for the time being and hope for regularity afterwards.