After the darkness of Young Mungo, I decided I needed to read something fluffy and lighthearted so I picked up a romance novel. I mean, what's fluffier than a romance novel?
Well, this one wasn't as fluffy as I might have expected, but it did the trick.
Set on Cape Cod, this book follows Lillie Silva as she deals with dramatic life changes as her only son leaves home and her husband leaves her for a younger, wealthier woman. While Dylan's departure for college was expected and she was preparing for it, her husband's affair comes out of nowhere and Lillie is not just hurt, she's furious.
So much so, she finds herself doing things she'd never have even considered before. Like letting a skunk loose in the house she sold to the wealthy widow her husband is now living with. Or dressing like Death and crashing their wedding so her image has to be Photoshopped out of all the wedding pictures. But somehow even doing these spiteful things doesn't make her feel better. Did she ever really love Brad, or did she just like being a wife?
As she moves further away from Brad's betrayal, Lillie finds herself opening up to new relationships- with the sister she's never quite forgiven for choosing to live with their mother after their parents split and Ben, with whom she was in a car crash as a teenager and has never fully forgiven either. And then there's Ophelia, the niece of Brad's new wife and even Melissa, the other woman who might not be exactly what she seems on the surface.
I don't often read this kind of book because I find them really formulaic. But sometimes that's quite comforting because you know nothing is going to jump out and devastate you and that by the end of the book the characters are going to live happily ever after. Or at least for now...
I quite liked Lillie and found her reaction to her husband's betrayal both hilarious and real. I can imagine myself reacting in much the same irrational way if I was in that situation. Unfortunately there are no skunks in New Zealand...
So while this isn't a book that's going to change your life - you may not even remember it a week or two after you read it - but it was enjoyable enough and it did lift the darkness from my soul that Young Mungo left.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
Lillie Silva knew life as an empty nester would be hard after her only child left for college, but when her husband abruptly dumps her for another woman just as her son leaves, her world comes crashing down. Besides the fact that this announcement is a complete surprise (to say the least), what shocks Lillie most is that she isn't...heartbroken. She's furious.Lillie has loved her life on Cape Cod, but as a mother, wife and nurse-midwife, she's used to caring for other people...not taking care of herself. Now, alone for the first time in her life, she finds herself going a little rogue. Is it over the top to crash her ex-husband's wedding, dressed like the angel of death? Sure! Should she release a skunk into his perfect new home? Probably not! But it beats staying home and moping.
She finds an unexpected ally in her glamorous sister, with whom she's had a tense relationship all these years. And an unexpected babysitter in of all people Ben Hallowell, the driver in a car accident that nearly killed Lillie 20 years ago. And then there's Ophelia, her ex-husband's oddly lost niece, who could really use a friend.
It's the end of Lillie's life as she knew it. But sometimes the perfect next chapter surprises you...out of the clear blue sky.
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