by Emily Henry

“I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

I have had mixed feelings about the very ballyhooed Women’s Fiction/Romcom/Chick Lit author, Emily Henry. She is good, don’t get me wrong, but I do not understand all of the hype considering there are much better and more consistently great authors out there in the same genre. At least in my (not very shared) opinion. Case in point. I believe there are five of her books being adapted for the screen, the last I counted. I approached this one hopefully but not too confidently. I also did not have a great mindset when I started it as I was anxious to get it over with (it was a library book) so I could get back to the very involving historical fiction series I am in the middle of. But I thought it was excellent and right up there with her best. It would have even been 5 stars except for a lame temporary break up of the couple near the end caused by a totally unnecessary and silly inability to communicate what was going on. It could have been done without compromising anyone. I get enough of that irritating and overused plot device with Hallmark. It was out of place here, considering everything which had gone before. That brought it down ½ of a star.

It was a dual time line plot, which we all know can be tricky since almost inevitably the reader is lots more interested in one story than the other. But in this case, both stories were engaging and interesting. (I was surprised and prepared to kind of speed read through the back story one, but to my irritation I had to read every word. Haha.) Two journalists are given the chance to write the authorized biography of a famous former media star and tragic poor little rich girl heiress of yesteryear who has, until journalist #1, Alice, tracks her down, and journalist #2, Hayden, is summoned to her small coastal town, where she has been hiding in plain sight for 20 years. Margaret will allow herself to be interviewed by the competing writers for the right to tell her story in full. But it isn’t long before Alice and Hayden agree that there is something weird going on. Margaret is not telling the whole truth to one or both of them. Alice is a cheerful, gregarious, and likable writer for a light-weight People Magazine type publication. And Haydon is a Pulitzer prize winning serious biographer who is hard, reserved, and moody. You know the drill.

The romance between the two writers was sweet, well paced and believable. I really liked how Hayden opened up and fell so hard for sweetie-pie Alice step by step. It’s told from Alice’s point of view so we know her inner feelings, but Emily Henry did a wonderful job of showing Hayden’s developing inner feelings towards Alice by his words and actions.

“I murmur, “Tell me something no one knows about you,” and he’s quiet and still for so long I start to wonder if I’ve crossed a line. Then he tips his chin down to his clavicle to meet my eyes and says simply, “I’m in love with you.”

For me, authors need to bring a lot more to the table than just a romance, and EH delivered in that department as well. Margaret’s tale of her life, starting with how her great grandfather made his fortune, Her grandfather’s, grandmother’s, father’s and mother’s ups and downs, and then her own romance with a rock idol and her relationship with her almost pathologically shy sister went from at least tolerably interesting to fascinating and gripping. Additionally, as the story developed, some mysteries emerged both in the past and the present. I was in anticipation of the answers and resolutions and hoped for happy outcomes. Alice had a difficult relationship with her mother and the exploration and resolution to that also added a lot of interest to the story. To top it off there was a twist that I didn’t see coming in how Margaret’s narrative of her family results in a reveal about a main character’s history.

There were parts of Margaret’s story that seemed a little weak, especially some decisions she made concerning her relationship with her sister. Didn’t make a whole lot of sense and seemed to be manufactured to create drama. I also wished for more closure to Alice’s relationship with her largely “off screen” boyfriend. Definitely expected him to show up at some point so Alice could give them the heave-ho he so richly deserved. But on the whole, I thought this was almost her best book. But then, I lean towards women’s fiction with the romance not being the be all and end all.