Spending six weeks away will give them a chance to re-evaluate their life choices. For Emily to decide which way her career will go – the safe route, or the more risky creative option? And for Rachel to decide whether to move in with her partner Jeremy. Then Tori has to drop out at the last moment, and her space is offered to another Hope Falls afficionado, Alex.
But when Alex turns out not to be who they expected, the holiday takes an unforeseen turn. And as the summer develops, so does their friendship. Could this be where they uncover their future selves, find love in all its forms and where their lives will change course forever…?
Comment: I decided to add this book to my TBR because it would feature characters who love reading. This month it fits a prompt in a challenge I'm reading, so...
Rachel, Emily and Tory are friends who have always loved everything connected to the book Hope Falls, centered in a group of three friends, just like them. They have also loved the movie based on the book and have planned for months the trip to the cottage where the movie was done. The place is very requested there is a waiting list as well, which means that when Tory tells them her father will no longer give her money as he has always done, they fear they cannot go. However, a solution is presented by the cottage's owner, perhaps they can accept a third person to help with the expanses, since Tory cannot go. They accept and that is how Alex takes Tory's place, but.... a surprise is definitely waiting for them. Will the three enjoy staying there as much as they dreamed?
This is the first book I try by the author, so I had no solid expectations except for a pre-conceived idea based on the author's prolific work and the cute covers of the books. I imagined the books would be more chick lit and not as much woman's fiction, but it seems that is precisely the mix.
The premise is interesting and starts off with a fictional excerpt of the fake book Hope Falls but I must not be paying enough attention because then the action jumped from characters Rosie, Laurie and Heather to others, whose names were Emily, Tory and Rachel and I admit I was very confused. Thankfully, this didn't last long and I quickly got on track with what the story really was about, which is how the three friends deal with their holiday, so longed for and the unexpected that comes with it.
Of course, another element is how each main character - Rachel, Emily and Alex - face personal issues and what it means to process many things in their lives has any importance to how much they enjoy the holiday or not. Certainly, there is plenty of stuff to compare with the reasons they claim the fake book is so special and we can infer the lesson to be that: life might imitate life but a person's journey is always personal and not really simple to see in a book.
There isn't much I can say about the plot that would surprise any reader, for that isn't the goal here. In fact, for anyone who has read other woman's fiction books, this is rather predictable. The sequence of events, since the main characters meet at the cottage and how their days go on after that follow very obvious patterns and the end is also calculable for this type of story. The supposed lessons aren't really special, and in part I suppose it has to do with the writing, which I've found to be competent but not really remarkable.
The real interest here sets on the characters, and how their personal little journeys seem impactful or not, depending on how much we like them. Rachel is a sweet woman who has a controlling boyfriend. This is obvious to everyone but her, so her story is centered on whether she realizes this or not. Clearly she does by the end, I don't think this surprises anyone, but considering the amount of time it takes, when she does see that feels rather anticlimactic.
Emily was more complex, mostly because the story is told only through her POV. She is debating on accepting a boring job or trying to start a patchwork business and her thoughts on this felt realistic. However, at first, she felt a little selfish in regards to her feelings about the cottage and expectations she had, even though I understand why she would act like that, and it took me some to warm up to her. Her dealings with Alex also seemed a little too hard to see positively and I did not buy into how their relationship evolved.
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