The book is broken up into two parts, and I honestly thought the first part went a little slow overall, but still engaging to read and necessary to build the second part of the story. As you learn from reading the synopsis, the main character, Aimee, is getting about to marry her childhood sweetheart, James. In the first chapter Aimee attending her fiance’s funeral. At one point she’s approached by someone who reveals information about her fiance’s disappearance- James may still be alive! Close friends advise Aimee that this mystery person is just a wacko trying to take advantage of her vulnerable situation. Aimee mostly puts the incident aside, although she thinks of it from time to time.
Over the next several months Aimee struggles with grief and piecing her life together. She goes through some identity discovery, and is trying to figure out what her future holds. All the while she maintains this feeling that something is not quite right with the story she’s been told about her fiance’s death and disappearance. She also keeps receiving clues from the mystery person she met at the funeral about what might have happened to James.
Finally, at the end of part one, and after more than a year after the funeral, Aimee decides to take action and go to Mexico to find answers. Is her husband alive? What will she do if she finds him? If she does find him, why has he stayed away all this time?
Part Two of the book involves Aimee seeking answers to her questions. On the one hand, she’s come so far since the disappearance and death of her fiance. She’s made something of her single life. As the reader you sort of just want her to be content and face the fact that her fiance is gone. On the other hand, you truly feel for her. We learn from reading flashbacks to their time growing up together that Aimee and James were very close. Their lives were intertwined. If I lost someone I loved so much, wouldn’t I search the ends of the earth to see if they were really and truly gone?
The second part of the book is my favorite. There’s a lot going on, and the author did a great job in the first part of the novel building up my expectations. The same conflict that’s going on in Aimee is going on in me as well. Is Aimee on a wild goose chase? Do I want her to find James? I kind of hope she finds him, but I’m also afraid of what happens if she does. I appreciate their love story, but I also like the the life she’s built for herself since his funeral.
I won’t say much else about the second half of the book because I really don’t want to give anything away. It was a compelling read with themes of grief, love, identity crisis, and friendship. The ending is great, and there’s an epilogue. (I love epilogues!)
When I read the last pages and let the ending sink in, I literally looked around the room to see if there was someone else that was feeling the same way I was. Of course, there wasn’t, but that didn’t stop me! I had all of the feelings! Joy, confusion, sadness, shock! A great way to end the book, and I tweeted at Kerry to ask about a second book… she said sequel next summer! You can bet I’ll be getting my hands on that one as soon as possible.
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I wondered if he was noticing from the photo how the thickly applied makeup hid the cuts on my cheek and the bruise on my chin.Highlighted by 891 Kindle readers- “Feeling guilty is natural. Just don’t hang on to it as long as I did. You’ll only get depressed and there isn’t a damn thing you can do to change the past.”Highlighted by 857 Kindle readers
- My heart reached out to him. I knew exactly how he felt. Hollow and incomplete. Loss left an empty cavity in the chest.Highlighted by 549 Kindle readers
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Everything We Keep is symbolic of internal emotions, feelings and struggles.
The opening line of Everything We Keep grabs Kerry Lonsdale's audience's attention, and the first paragraph rivets the reader's eyes to the page."On our wedding day, my finance', James, arrived at the church in a casket.""For years, I'd dreamed of him waiting for me at the altar, wearing that smile he reserved just for me. But instead of walking down the aisle toward my best friend, my first and only love, I was at his funeral."This fiction story has twists and turns that bring its characters to unexpected places - from Los Gatos, California, to the Emerald Coast of Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Lonsdale's description of the settings adds flavor without over-seasoning.She explores the raw emotions that young and beautiful Aimee Tierney feels when she loses her beloved and finds a new love. Aimee hates the sense of her own betrayal toward her deceased finance', but keeps it locked deep within. She can't bear to remove the engagement ring.Aimee keeps James' clothes hung in their closet, his paint supplies in his studio and the engagement ring on her finger. The title, Everything We Keep, is symbolic of the internal feelings and emotions that Aimee Tierney struggles with letting go until the emotions nearly destroy her and any chance of making a new life.While in Mexico with her new lover, Ian, Aimee is desperate to find answers to the disappearance and death of James. Drama builds when she discovers the truth of his death and the dark secrets of the family she almost married into all the while keeping her own muddy secret.Flashbacks are strategically placed throughout the story giving just enough information to add a depth of intrigue. Lonsdale follows four themes and weaves letting go, healing, forgiveness, and love in a masterful way.Kerry Lonsdale does a great job of characterization and a superb job of knitting her characters and events together in such a way as to draw her audience into the intrigue of the story. However, I did lose empathy and respect for the main character, Aimee Tierney, when she was portrayed using vulgar language, taking God's name in vain, and getting drunk. Lonsdale used unnecessary and explicit intimate details in several scenes. Nothing was left to the imagination.This novel has a good story line with a fast pace and intrigue. But, because of the sporadic vulgarity, swearing, getting drunk, and the explicit intimate details, I give it a 4-star rating.Kerry Lonsdale graduated from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, CA. She is founder of the Women's Fiction Writers Association. She resides in northern California with her husband and two children. This is her first novel.Review is submitted by: Rita Kroon, author of "Kiss Your Mommy Goodbye."
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GTozzi
Mai farsi fuorviare dai giudizi degli altri...
Reviewed in Italy on June 6, 2017
