Comment: No idea why this one was in the pile, it was probably because I liked this book I had read in 2020 and decided I could try to invest in something else by the author... although, to be fair, I had also read this one and wasn't a fan. I suppose this one could be the tie-breaker...
Robyn and Jake are going to be parents and they are very happy about it, for their lives are on track. Then, it makes sense for them to marry too, and they think of the Beach Hut owned by Jake's father as the perfect spot for the wedding, especially since they want something minimalist and simple. However, there's more to plan a wedding than they both imagined and to make everything more complicated, the lives of those around them keep moving and Robyn, who was adopted as a baby, feels this is the moment to know more about her birth mother, considering she will be a mother soon too. But despite the best intentions, life finds a way to bring new challenges...
If an author is prolific certainly some books will always seem great and others not so much. The trick is to guess which one might be more one way or the other! Thankfully, this one fell into the "positive" category and I had a good time reading it, something I didn't expect when I started.
The thing is, this is definitely a woman's fiction story and while I don't mind this type of book, I don't really seek it unless it's for some specific reason. I thought this book might go more towards the style of the one I liked, in terms of plot, and I did see some common elements, but if I didn't know beforehand, I'd not say it's by the same author. Despite this, I've ended up liking this book because the characters were engaging and interested me.
The plot is centered on Robyn and Jake and how their lives have led them to be a couple in love, to have a baby on the way and how things can be as simple and as perfect as this. There are plenty of secondary characters, mostly the ones in their inner circle and I've wondered if they had been protagonists in previous books - it turns out this is the fourth book in a series set around the beach huts. I have not read those books but from the synopsis it seems the stories might be stand alones in plot, with only the setting in common. In a way this pleased me for I was not feeling the will to read the other novels.
The story is pretty straightforward a woman's fiction novel, with the big focus on emotions and feelings and everyday situations the characters deal with. At first I confess I wasn't too eager and I thought this would resemble the first book I had tried by the author, which I found boring and with not very likable characters, but I was soon proved wrong and Robyn and the others grew on me. In particular I liked Jake's dad, back to dating now he is in his fifties, and Robyn herself, who was adopted.
Besides the characters that are close to the main couple, we are also told about Robyn's birth mother Emily and how she came to be pregnant and why Robyn was adopted. I was quite taken by this secondary sub plot and was more invested in this section than in the rest, to be honest. I think the author has this style of simply presenting things, though, more telling than really showing sometimes, and this can be annoying in certain genres or certain plots but... when it comes to these "past event" situations, it kind of suited the intention.
No comments:
Post a Comment