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tita_noir 's review for:
Just the Way You Are
by Barbara Freethy
I initially picked up this book because the premise seemed to promise a lot of drama.
The main character Allie was by far the best character in the book. She is the younger of two sisters. Her older sister Tessa is (in Allie's eyes) perfect. She's tall, thin and gorgeous. She is also the first love of Allie's husband Sam.
Allie is a wonderful contradiction and that is why i think she is a great character. On the one hand she is a go-getter. She is focused, a good mother, incredibly likeable -- she simply makes things happen. However around Tessa and Sam she is mass of insecurities. In Tessa's case Allie always compares herself negatively to Tessa mainly on the basis of looks. In Sam's case she feels that she got him by default because nine years ago while Sam and Tessa had broken up after an argument, Allie slept with Sam and got pregnant.
As the book opens Allie and Sam are separated. Allie has been madly in love with Sam since she can remember and although he has been a good husband and father, she feels that something is missing -- that he is holding a part of himself back. And she has come to conclusion that she simply can't love enough for the both of them. So she wants out.
Coincidentally, Tessa is coming back to town to see their ailing grand-mother. Tessa has not been back home since Allie and Sam got married. For Allie it just means that Sam and Tessa can finally get together the way they should have all those years ago. From her perspective she had gotten in the way of fate, now she is getting out of the way and letting true nature take it's course.
I think on some level the author succeeds in showing us that Allie's perspective is skewed when it comes to those two and that it isn't quite an easy thing for a man to relegate his wife of nine years into the role of interloper. Especially when the marriage has been a pretty good one. And yet the author also succeeds -- on another level -- in showing that Sam and Tessa do have some unresolved feelings for each other that they clearly do need to work out. So what is real? Sam's nine-year marriage and his wife or his old feelings for an ex-flame?
The problem is don't think the story works through that question all that well. I wanted to see Sam clearly examine what/who he wanted. I wanted the author to show me that Sam was truly struggling with the options he was given. I don't feel that happened. There would be points in the story when I felt like the we were getting tantalizingly close to a point where the story would click and I actually feel that the tangle of feelings and emotions being grappled with. But it always slid away, just out of reach. The whole time I felt that all the characters, especially Sam and Tessa tended to talk around each other (when they could actually finish a conversation without being interrupted).
In the end, Sam does realize where his true feelings lay, but it wasn't very satisfying. Throughout the story I thought that Sam was pretty passive-aggressive., And a bit of a jerk as well, really. Allie was clear about what she wanted from him and he stubbornly refused to give it to her and yet at the same time he wonders why she is pushing for a divorce. Allie left no area for misunderstanding and yet he just didn't hear her.
Tessa comes off as pouty and entitled. She is also, imo, the least developed of the three.
The writing was excellent, I just wish the story had lived up to the dramatic promise.
The main character Allie was by far the best character in the book. She is the younger of two sisters. Her older sister Tessa is (in Allie's eyes) perfect. She's tall, thin and gorgeous. She is also the first love of Allie's husband Sam.
Allie is a wonderful contradiction and that is why i think she is a great character. On the one hand she is a go-getter. She is focused, a good mother, incredibly likeable -- she simply makes things happen. However around Tessa and Sam she is mass of insecurities. In Tessa's case Allie always compares herself negatively to Tessa mainly on the basis of looks. In Sam's case she feels that she got him by default because nine years ago while Sam and Tessa had broken up after an argument, Allie slept with Sam and got pregnant.
As the book opens Allie and Sam are separated. Allie has been madly in love with Sam since she can remember and although he has been a good husband and father, she feels that something is missing -- that he is holding a part of himself back. And she has come to conclusion that she simply can't love enough for the both of them. So she wants out.
Coincidentally, Tessa is coming back to town to see their ailing grand-mother. Tessa has not been back home since Allie and Sam got married. For Allie it just means that Sam and Tessa can finally get together the way they should have all those years ago. From her perspective she had gotten in the way of fate, now she is getting out of the way and letting true nature take it's course.
I think on some level the author succeeds in showing us that Allie's perspective is skewed when it comes to those two and that it isn't quite an easy thing for a man to relegate his wife of nine years into the role of interloper. Especially when the marriage has been a pretty good one. And yet the author also succeeds -- on another level -- in showing that Sam and Tessa do have some unresolved feelings for each other that they clearly do need to work out. So what is real? Sam's nine-year marriage and his wife or his old feelings for an ex-flame?
The problem is don't think the story works through that question all that well. I wanted to see Sam clearly examine what/who he wanted. I wanted the author to show me that Sam was truly struggling with the options he was given. I don't feel that happened. There would be points in the story when I felt like the we were getting tantalizingly close to a point where the story would click and I actually feel that the tangle of feelings and emotions being grappled with. But it always slid away, just out of reach. The whole time I felt that all the characters, especially Sam and Tessa tended to talk around each other (when they could actually finish a conversation without being interrupted).
In the end, Sam does realize where his true feelings lay, but it wasn't very satisfying. Throughout the story I thought that Sam was pretty passive-aggressive., And a bit of a jerk as well, really. Allie was clear about what she wanted from him and he stubbornly refused to give it to her and yet at the same time he wonders why she is pushing for a divorce. Allie left no area for misunderstanding and yet he just didn't hear her.
Tessa comes off as pouty and entitled. She is also, imo, the least developed of the three.
The writing was excellent, I just wish the story had lived up to the dramatic promise.