Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas

A few weeks ago one of the headlines on my homepage was regarding Brangelina. I'm not a gossip hound, but was intrigued his statement regarding the whole mess:

“Even then it doesn’t mean that there was some kind of dastardly affair. There wasn’t. I’m very proud of the way that it was handled. It was respectful.”

I was immediately disgusted. Hello...  if you fall in love with someone while you are married to someone else, regardless of physical contact, you are having an AFFAIR.  And frankly, there is no argument to convince me otherwise. And giving yourself a pat on the back for your imagined restraint and self control is delusional and laughable. (Can you tell I'm irritated?)

This is the premise of the new book by Holly Shumas and when asked to review it (just a few days later), I jumped at the chance. Knowing my already strongish opinions on the matter, I was curious to see how the situation would be handled over 300 pages. I was not disappointed.

From the first chapter, you are thrown into the discovery by pregnant Eve that her husband Jonathan is involved (via emails and phone calls) with someone from work.  The rest of the story deals with Eve's reaction and back & forth over how to handle life and her future; complicating matters are the reactions of those close to her, and Jon's    attempts to get his family back and rationalize his behavior.   Shumas does a masterful job of not making Eve a whiny victim and with each decision Eve makes and responses she has, the situation gets fuzzier instead of clearer.

This would make for a feisty and spirited book discussion. Which is why I'm choosing it for my February online bookclub pick. Yes, during the month of love I'm asking you to read it and be ready to chat on February 28.

3.5+ stars

The End.

Other reviews:

Booking Mama - at the end of her review, she has a long list of more.

 

Comments

[avisannschild]

I agree, it's hardly "respectful" to fall in love with someone else while you're married. What the heck was he thinking??

I just read and reviewed this book (and linked to your review): http://shereadsandreads.blogspot.com/2009/01/love-and-other-natural-disasters-by.html