Review: A wonderful look at finding yourself again after the death of a loved one
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 12, 2011
Article first published as Book Review:Ten Good Reasons to Lie About Your Age by Stephanie Zia on Blogcritics.Living the dream and having a life that others only wish for is an amazing existence. Spending your life with the man you love, watching your children grow together is only what happens to other people. But what if that other person happens to be you? And what if instead of growing old together, he dies in a tragic accident?Sally Lightfoot is now living this life. Growing up in the time of free love and music, she found the man of her dreams, a music producer who loved life and fun, as well as Sally. Bereft at his death she does the best she can, coming to terms with the changes. Age is a factor, she is no long young and her children have grown, money too is a new issue she is has to deal with. Her only option is to sell the home that they so lovingly put together. Dissociative behavior seems to rule her life, she struggles just doing the simple things, and yet she must. The house is barely on the market when she finds a buyer, yet she is still not sure where she will go or where she will live. As she decides to take a vacation to a remote Greek island, a chance to regroup her life and to reconnect with her children, she realizes that her life no longer has meaning. She is no longer sure who she is.In Ten Good Reasons to Lie About your age, Stephanie Zia has developed a story of life and hope. Sally is a woman who buried herself in her marriage and her children. She lost her footing when her husband died, and struggles through her new life. Interrupted in the most devastating of ways, life has changed and she is unsure of herself. Their friends slowly slip away into their own lives, but she makes friends with a neighbor that she barely tolerated before Dominic's death. This neighbor gives her a stability she needs.Being on her own on the island brings a new set of problems, but as each day moves into the next and as she makes her rental habitable she finds a beauty she did not expect. Even those she was most awkward with have become her friends. When she meets Loro, all bets are off. Handsome, close to her own age he has the voice and the charisma to carry it off. Life takes on more meaning as Sally's life takes another turn.Stephanie Zia makes you feel the pressure and hopelessness that is Sally's life, from the funeral right through her grieving process. As life begins to bloom again, you feel the veil lifted along with her, and when she finally makes decisions based off her own feelings, you cheer her on. Through it all, she feels as though Dom (her dead husband) continues to try to take care of her from the other side. As love and longing bloom, she finds she no longer needs that crutch and is able to get back to real living.I would recommend this book for reading and book clubs. It is insightful and delightful, full of thoughtful dialogue and exceptional clarity. Sally feels real, like a neighbor or a friend and that makes the story take on a presence of its own. It is a story of hope and learning to love yourself, to find that inner you that sometimes is lost when we make other's lives more important than our own. This is a book about life and it is a romance as well, you will get lost in the story and not want to put it down until it is finished.This book was received as a free e-book from the author. All opinions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.