Forever Hold Your Peace by Liz FentonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Is this a beach read? Yes, it is. Is it a light and fluffy beach read? No. Is it even a good beach read? Not in my opinion.
I have never read anything by these two authors, so please forgive my ignorance. I see that many reviews have read them and enjoyed them. I am not enjoying this depressing book at all.
It was difficult enough for me to become engaged in the romance of what I consider young adults (sorry, I'm in my 60's). However, I do understand the quickness of the romance and marriage of Zach and Olivia. My husband and I met and married within 4 months! We have been married for over 41 years!
What starts as a light, fluffy romance soon becomes a gigantic mess. This mess is because of this couple's parents, who knew each other way back when. I won't go into the sordid details but suffice it to say it was NOT pretty - but as older adults who cannot get their act together for their kids...*sigh*.
Ad the inner dialoguing and angst that goes on for pages at a time, and I was ready to dump this book unfinished.
All this, and I am only 45% finished with this book!
The following third of the book deals with this group of frenemies and how they try to plan a wedding, all while stabbing each other in the back in the nicest of ways. After something (which was expected) happens at Zach and Olivia's engagement party, this book turns into one big blame game, with each person blaming themselves and others for what had happened at the party 26 years ago. Whew, I was exhausted by this time!
The last chapter or two is our happily ever after-did you think there wasn't going to be one? Please!
No, this wasn't an extraordinary novel; the characters were flat, with hardly anything to differentiate them. You could see the ending coming a mile away, even though it was somewhat creative.
It should be a good beach, or plane read, even if it isn't all that fluffy until the end.
*ARC supplied by the publisher Penguin/Random House, the authors, and NetGalley.
To make this a TACKY mess, the authors reviewed their own book. What nerve.
SYNOPSIS: "Father of the Bride meets Bride Wars in Forever Hold Your Peace, in which two ex-best friends find themselves shockingly entangled after more than two decades apart, for fans of Good Company.
When their newly engaged kids ask all four divorced parents to meet each other over brunch, everyone RSVPs yes--secretly hoping someone at the table will get to the bottom of the bottomless mimosas fast enough to say what they’re all thinking: that this engagement, coming after a whirlwind romance between two people barely out of college, is too much too soon.
But at that brunch, it’s not the impulsive couple's decisions that end up under the microscope, as it turns out June, mother of the bride, and Amy, mother of the groom, certainly do know each other--they're ex-best-friends who haven't spoken since their explosive falling out more than twenty-five years ago. Reeling from their unwanted reunion and eager to shift the spotlight off their past as decades-old secrets and rivalries come to light, the two moms battle it out for the prize of Most Enthusiastic About This Wedding.
But when their history—and their present-day shenanigans—threaten to crack the foundations of the happy couple’s future, June and Amy find themselves becoming unexpected allies in an all-hands-on-deck effort to get their kids (and themselves) a happily-ever-after two generations in the making.
Forever Hold Your Peace is perfect for readers who love messy, complicated family novels like All Adults Here and stories that bring the past and present together like One Italian Summer.
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