Review: ‘if you’re gonna do something best, be number one at it’!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2014
With 'And When', Wendy Proteau has written a gem. Rich in detail and characterization this book will give you an good emotional ride for your money.The main character Jade is a 40- something, beautiful, full-figured woman with long hair and gorgeous eyes (though she doesn’t really see it that way) with a pretty dry sense of humour , a ready wit and a smart-ass mouth.She finds herself in a tough spot – despite good and supportive friends and family, she seems to struggle through life – her job just earns her enough to buy a house, but it needs a lot of work; her health declines with the discovery of thyroid tumours, but the health services takes forever to help her and her spirits sags; her recently retired, much loved Dad is diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a short time to live. Nonetheless the  way she does get through this, albeit it slowly and sometimes painfully, draws you to her and you will her on side, thanks to Wendy Proteau’s excellent writing. Jade meets new people online through a chat room and this helps build her confidence in herself and in her future and eventually she meet these friends in person, including the handsome Brady with whom she’s been chatting, mailing and phoning for over a year. Their meeting is a turning point in the novel as from then on the focus is largely on their on-off relationship and their friends from the online chat group. I did miss the rest of Jade’s family and friends from the beginning in the second half and it almost made it seem like a separate book, but as I only realized this at the end I guess it didn’t detract from the enjoyment I had from reading the novel.  There is a lot of detail in this ‘second’ half in the conversations between Brady and Jade – they are what it’s about and it’s how you as the reader make up your mind about Brady’s character. It is extremely believable and well written and this for me made me want to keep going and of course find out where this is all leading. The path of true love never runs smooth they say, and this is certainly the case for Jade and Brady, but as a reader I believed in them, right until the last page!. Fantastic.