‘I don’t mean that kind of break.’
There’s nothing worse than the last day of holiday. Oh wait, there is. When what should have been a proposal turns into a break, Liv and Adam find themselves on opposite sides of the life they had mapped out.
Friends and family all think they’re crazy; Liv throws herself into work – animals are so much simpler than humans – and Adam tries to get himself out of the hole he’s dug. But as the short break becomes a chasm, can they find a way back to each other?
More importantly, do they want to?
Review: As always, I was very excited about this book coming out. I love the premise behind this one. Lindsey Kelk always writes about real things that can happen to real people. This book is a very realistic take on relationships, dating and settling down in society today. It focuses on what life is like as you hit your thirties and get more responsibility, what life is like when your friends are settling down and having children and what dating and relationships are like since the advent of social media and dating apps like Tindr. I love Lindsey Kelk's take on everything, I've said it before and I'll say it again, she just says it like it is. You know that nothing is hidden, nothing is sugar-coated and its like she's saying what we've all been thinking, but just haven't had the guts to put it out there!
Obviously the concept of 'we were on a break' is a very famous part of the TV show Friends but this is nothing like that and so don't expect it to be. The concept of the 'break' as alluded to on the front cover was exactly as ambiguous and complicated as I hoped it would be. Obviously the structure of this novel is a little different for this author because this is the first time things have been told from both sides, we have Adam and we have Liv and both of them tell the story. I love a dual narrative and I love getting to hear what each person makes of a situation or indeed of the other person. The storyline is also interesting because Liv is a vet and Adam is a carpenter. I don't think I've read anything with such high-profile characters having these careers. It was incredibly well-researched though and so I was happy with that aspect of the novel.
In terms of Liv and Adam themselves. I really liked the way they interacted with each other and with the other characters in the book (best friends Abi and Cass are seriously funny, and Chris is one of those love to hate brothers who ultimately means well, don't even get me started on David-love him!) its all very real and very naturally, you're not always going to get along with everyone are you? As characters themselves, I think the 'break' made me dislike them just a little bit, they were both somewhat indecisive and I think if i were their friend, I would have lost patience with them at some point...
This book isn't set in London or in New York, but in much more rural England and this was also a little different for this author. I enjoyed the fact that people couldn't just hop in a taxi or on a tube and be somewhere super-quick, it was nice that they had to drive for 2 hours to get home from the airport and get in the car to go and visit someone! The timeframe that the books takes place over is really rather short. I think for me, this made the book move a little slower, I'm used to a little more pace in Kelk's novels but, as you can see from above, it clearly didn't harm my opinion of this book. I wouldn't say this was my favourite Lindsey Kelk story but it had all of the features that I come to expect from her novels, which was great, and I absolutely loved the ending, made me laugh and cry. Defintiely pop this one on your TBR!
Click here to get your copy now-out today!
No comments:
Post a Comment