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A review by a_ab
Your Perfect Year by Charlotte Lucas
4.0
This was a pleasant surprise. Based on the cover I expected light inoffensive fluff, and while it's not entirely light, it is uplifting, and I didn't find anything offensive in it, but it most certainly didn't feel like fluff.
It turned out to be quite a rare find in contemporary literature: This novel is well written, well paced, well thought out, and doesn't resort to sex and violence for impact and high stakes! I am impressed.
I did not love the 2 main characters whose stories we are told in the alternating chapters. But they were real, relatable, consistent and human. With believable development and understandable choices, at least most choices. They were people I could thoroughly believe in.
It's not a perfect book: there are some sloppy plot points and scenes or descriptions which overstay their welcome, but the flaws are minor enough to be overlooked in light of the overall impression.
It turned out to be quite a rare find in contemporary literature: This novel is well written, well paced, well thought out, and doesn't resort to sex and violence for impact and high stakes! I am impressed.
Spoiler
The book tackles emotional baggage, grief, dealing with a terminal illness, homelessness and suicide, and it manages to do it both intimately, but in a non-invasive way, with great tact and insight.I did not love the 2 main characters whose stories we are told in the alternating chapters. But they were real, relatable, consistent and human. With believable development and understandable choices, at least most choices. They were people I could thoroughly believe in.
Spoiler
However, I still think that both of them deserved someone different in their lives as a partner, not better - just different. But since they both could use a short relationship different from what they had known before, I didn't mind the hastily thrown together "happy ending".It's not a perfect book: there are some sloppy plot points and scenes or descriptions which overstay their welcome, but the flaws are minor enough to be overlooked in light of the overall impression.