Review::: Around The Bend by Britney King
Title: Around The Bend Author: Britney King Book Blitz: January 5-7
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If you were to pass me on the street, you probably wouldn’t even look twice. I’m that normal. I’m just like you, only wealthier. I have it all. The kids, the family, the dog, a house on the hill. Hell—I’m so cliché, I even have a white picket fence. I guess you could say that I’ve dotted my I’s and crossed my T’s. But what I also have—what no one sees in yoga, or at Nieman Marcus, or during the dreadful Ladies Who Lunch charity events I attend (because only God knows why), and perhaps most importantly, in the school pick up line—are secrets.
Deep, dark, deadly secrets.
We all keep secrets, don’t we? We all have thoughts in our heads, things we do, things about us that if people knew, they’d be shocked…right? Well, what if one day we just decided to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.
What if we decided to let the whole world in on our dirty little secrets? And what if along the way, as we were spilling those secrets, we realized that things aren’t always what they seem and with that knowledge, it changed the whole story?
In this book, I’m laying it all out there. The unraveling of my life. My coming undone. What one might’ve seen had they been paying attention.
What I’ve found in life is people often believe lies before they’ll believe the truth. Well, here it is, in a nutshell. I’ll let you decide which is which.
Myles didn’t wait for a response. He simply grinned, grabbed her arm just above the elbow, and led her out of the bar, and back to his room. Pain was a given, she’d just realized. And sometimes, you just needed to give into it—no matter what form it showed up in.
Jessica watched him go as she dug her toes further into the wet sand and squeezed them, watching as the muddy water poured over her feet and enveloped them. She let him get a ways ahead before she allowed herself to smile—just a little. All along she’d let him think he was breaking her, but maybe, just maybe, they’d actually been breaking each other.
Reviewed by Lora Jarvis
4 out of 5 stars
I had reservations about this book when I first started. The situation seemed unreal and too heavy for me to deal with. Those reservations quickly evaporated into a need to get to the next page and see what was happening with Jess & Myles.
Myles has been hired to look after Jess when her husband leaves the country after an accident has left Jess a whole different person than the one he married. The first encounter between Myles & Jess comes in her barn when she’s trying to kill herself. The relationship definitely couldn’t go anywhere but up from there.
Jess wasn’t looking for romance. Myles didn’t want romance. They found it anyway.
One of my favorite quotes in the book is this one when Myles is talking to Jess:
What I meant was that being with you...that’s what it feels like. A little raw, but familiar too. I don’t [know] why I’m saying this other than I think you should know...Being with you...it’s like....I can breathe again -- only it hurts a little and yet, at the same time, I can’t suck in enough air to keep me satisfied.
They both have baggage and they both have issues, but together they learn what life and love are all about. The best way that this comes across in the book is this line here:
All along she’d let him think he was breaking her, but maybe, just maybe, they’d actually been breaking each other.
There were definitely some surprises in this book and some of them shook me to my core, but I would recommend that you check out this book if you like books about 2nd chances and real love that doesn’t know the boundaries that people often try to put on it.
For those of you who prefer it straight up, no chaser: Mama to five. Writer. Juggler extraordinaire. That just about covers it...
The extended version and in third person no less ;): Britney is married to a man she adores (when he isn't driving her crazy) and is the mother of FIVE pretty amazing kids, who (surprise!) also have a habit of driving her crazy. Her best guess is that it's genetic. She is the author of two novels, Bedrock and Breaking Bedrock, with plans to release a third and fourth in 2014. In addition, she founded a local network for women in 2012, which has grown to over 1200 members. Currently, she occupies a job she enjoys--serving and running Austin Women's Network. To further prove that she may in fact be certifiably insane, she decided to pursue her dreams and published her debut novel in May of 2013. Then and only then, could she consider her training to be an expert (life) juggler complete.
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