I'd Give Anything

This felt more intense than Marisa de los Santos' previous books, as if someone took the beautiful, nuanced pace of her earlier work, turned the speed up just a bit (from 33 1/3 to 45 for those of you old folks) and threw in a few more plotlines, including a bit of suspense. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but I wish there had been a little more room to breathe and appreciate her skill as a writer. The first chapter is a great example of de los Santos' incisive writing. Our heroine Ginny runs into an acquaintance at a local market and slowly realizes that the news the acquaintance is telling her is going to change her life forever. I watched until Dirk was out of sight, and only then did i look down and notice my hands. While the rest of me had been busy being cool and unruffled, my hands had been and were still undergoing what I can only describe as a miniature seismic event. I barely recognized them: racked with tremors, rigid as talons, gripping the tomatoes so hard that my nails dug in, and with wonder and horror, as I stared, I watched my right fingernail pop clean through the fragile flesh, a puncture wound that bled a rivulet of pinkish juice down my hand to stain my new, cream-colored cuff.I love the way that tells you so much about the character and creates such a visual image as well. So yes, Ginny and her husband split up under devastating circumstances. Also, her mother, who has been a formidable but never warm or loving presence, dies. These events, plus the impending engagement party that will cause Ginny to come face to face with the high school friends she loved and then abandoned, cause her to think back on the wild, brave girl she once was. And with her teenage daughter asking questions both about her father's actions and her mother's history, Ginny wonders if it's not too late to become that person again.Oh yeah and there's also a love story thrown in there. I don't want to reveal too much about the plot but there is a lot going on for fewer than 300 pages. Some of the plotlines aren't fully developed, and there are a few too many coincidences like the fact that Ginny's brand new love interest turns out to have featured prominently in the pivotal event of her adolescence that caused her radical personality change. But fortunately this is a de los Santos book so it's heartfelt, beautifully written and ultimately uplifting without being treacly. I have yet to read a book by this author that I wouldn't recommend; I just wish her new releases were more frequent. N.B. This book is supposedly #4 in a series but it is fine as a standalone. One of the secondary characters appeared in [b:Belong to Me 2113410 Belong to Me (Love Walked In, #2) Marisa de los Santos https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441939798l/2113410.SY75.jpg 2212314], but was not integral to the plot.

I love the friendships that the author developed with her characters. Reading Ginny's journal was the best part of the book.