Review: Choices & Consequences
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 24, 2014
***Received from Fabulosity Reads for an honest review***~~~There is nothing hidden that won’t be revealed, and there is nothing secret that won’t become known and come to light.Luke 8:17 (ISV)~~~I won’t lie. I had a hard time with the content of this story. Extra-marital affairs are not something I condone. Despite that old saying, misery does not love company. It leads to bitterness, resentment, and anger. It has the potential to destroy relationships that might otherwise be salvaged.In Laurel’s case, misery had been her companion for far too long. A mostly absent and alcoholic husband pushed her into Misery’s arms. Whether or not it was by choice, she accepted its embrace. And who could blame her? The life she wanted was no longer in reach. The emotions she felt years ago were stamped down by her husband’s crude public behavior when he drank.Was it reason enough to find emotional completion in another man’s embrace? Depends, I suppose. For me, it wasn’t. The loneliness and misery I understood, but the happiness and love she craved would have been completely hers if she’d ended it with her husband before pursuing a relationship with Brandon.Brandon… He’s interesting. Younger by more than ten years, he gave her what she couldn’t have with her husband: the ability to feel again. He was relentless in his pursuit of her, touches here, looks there. His hyper-awareness of her was appealing to read about because he used his attentiveness to his advantage, coaxing her to open up when she didn’t want, getting her to talk when she’d rather stay silent.But he was her secret, at first, and secrets, whether good or bad, will eventually be made known. If good, people benefit. They thrive, grow, become better. If bad… Lives are destroyed, relationships damaged. What has been lost is difficult to regain.Except Laurel’s confession to having an affair, first to her girlfriends then to her husband, wasn’t the only secret in this story. Her life was connected to Brandon’s in a way neither of them would have even guessed. Watching all those dots get connected was interesting to see, and the subsequent result was surprising to say the least.It was difficult for me to accept the ease with which Laurel spent a weekend with Brandon. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been in her shoes before, or because I don’t know anyone who felt the loneliness she did, or maybe it was the lack of narrative. Told in first person, a great portion of this story is told in dialogue. The absence of narrative made it hard to gauge Laurel’s reaction and feeling for everything going on. I would’ve liked to see a lot more narrative. Not only would I have understood her reason for escaping with him, I would have understood her.Still, their story made for an interesting read. I was incredibly pleased with the snowball effect of her choices. That might sound mean, but it made the aftereffects real. And to write about such a realistic situation demands absolute truth throughout the entire story, even if it doesn’t sit well with the reader.Like I said, I won’t lie. This was a hard story to read. Ms. Bliss gave me front row seats to a train wreck already in progress, shared the high of rediscovered emotions for someone new, then dumped me into a hell created by secrets and lies. In the end, the happiness Laurel and Brandon received, plus the progress her now ex-husband made in becoming a better person, was worth the ride.