A review by andrea0301
Ada's Rules by Alice Randall

2.0

I really wanted to like this book. It had a great initial plot..A 50 year old black southern woman who has had 3 sisters die from diabetes, gets an invitation to her college reunion and uses it as a motivation to lose the 100lbs she has gained since graduating(and to not end up the same fate as her sisters). She also has a preacher husband whom she suspects is cheating on her. The path towards losing weight I enjoyed, including some of her low-calorie treats and de-stressors she creates for herself. However, the book tends to drag on. And then*warning spoiler alert*, she confronts 4 women she suspects cheated with her husband (why not confront the husband I am screaming), finds out none of them have cheated with her husband, and thus, she goes on a romantic vacation with him. Before she leaves her vacation spot, she tells us her college crush is dating her daughter now! Are you kidding me? After they reconnected and had dinner and everything. And to top all that off, she tells us there was a 5th woman she does not confront after all because she just KNOWS and she just assumes her husband won't do it again. I lost total respect for her character at this point. Not only is she still not having good communication with her husband (which started their joint problems to begin with) but after finding herself and losing the weight, she is just going to accept these issues and never bring them up. She has that much faith that her husband won't cheat again? Maybe I am cynical or have seen too many couple's fall apart, but this seemed too cookie cutter for me, especially the last 5-10 chapters(especially since her and Preach seem to have a serious lack of communication which is exactly the source of most couples' demise IMO). This book had such potential, but came up short in the end. Still worth a read(at least from a weight loss perspective), but definitely a frustrating ending.