It's You by Jane Porter


It's You

Synopsis:

From the USA Today bestselling author of the Brennan Sisters novels comes a heartwarming story about finding love and strength, even in the darkest moments…

In the wake of a tragedy that tore her life down to the foundations, Dr. Alison McAdams has lost her way. So when she’s summoned to Napa to care for her ailing father, she’s not sure she has anything to offer him—or anyone else.

What Ali finds in Northern California wine country is a gift—an opportunity to rest, and distance from her painful memories. Most unexpectedly, she finds people who aren’t afraid of her grief or desperate for her to hurry up and move on.

As Ali becomes part of her father’s community, makes new friends of her own, and hears the stories of a generation who survived the Second World War, she begins to find hope again. In a quest to discover the truth about another woman’s lost love, she sets off on a journey across oceans and deep into history. And in making sense of that long-ago tragedy, Ali is able to put together the broken pieces of her heart and make new choices that are right for her.

Review:

It's You was an interesting read. Not what I expected when I started out. It was told from two points of view and I really enjoyed one of them. The other was alright. I understood why things happened, why people were the way they were, but it also bugged me a bit. Still it was a good read. 

Ali is not really doing so well. Her fiancĂ© killed himself weeks before their wedding and she still has not really dealt with that. She just suppresses all of her emotions so it is like she doesn't feel anything. She is angry with her fiance and she doesn't want to be. She doesn't know why he would do something like that, how he could leave her like that. He always seemed so happy and great. Why would he do this to her? She is still working with his dad at his dental practice, but she never really tried to deal with what happened. On top of that, a few months later, her mom passed away suddenly. She has a lot to deal with, but she doesn't. 

Her father calls her one day to let her know he had a bit of a fall, but he is okay. Ali is just starting to fall apart a bit. Her emotions are starting to come through no matter how hard she tried to keep them locked away. She decides to take some time off and go see her father. Her father whom she has a rough relationship with. He lives in Napa, she in Scottsdale. She wants him to move down to be closer to her, but he has no interest in that. He is happy in his retirement community. He has friends, a life, he just likes where he is. 

Ali and her father don't have the best relationship. It was hard reading Ali at times as she is one of those people that won't say if something is bothering her or what she wants she will just stew about it. She thinks at times how she doesn't understand why her father doesn't realize everything she is doing, how she wants things to be. She doesn't really understand that not everyone is a mind reader. If she would just speak up and have a conversation she wouldn't be so hurt by every little thing. Especially when the other people probably don't realize how much they are hurting her since she never says anything. 

Through visiting her father she sorta makes friends with this crotchety old lady that lives where he does. She doesn't seem very happy or nice, but Edie, the old lady, does open up to Ali. Hers is the other point of view and I loved it. I loved her story so much. Very interesting and everything she says were just very valid points. I couldn't imagine living her life, doing the things she did and dealing with the consequences. Yes, she is a bit rough around the edges, but that has built up over time I am sure. She can't really talk about her past. People just don't understand. Ali doesn't at first. She only ever gets judgements and it is kind of heartbreaking. She is a tough lady. She has to be very strong to deal with everything. 

Edie kept some journals of her younger years. She doesn't have all of them, some were destroyed, but the ones she does have she gives to Ali to read. Through reading about Franz, Edie's first love, Ali starts to be able to come to terms with her own recent past. She starts to be able to think of her fiance and start to move on from that. 

The parallels were pretty straightforward and Ali is able to start questioning her never going to move on and love someone else thing. At the start of the book she is determined that she will be alone forever. Now, but by the end, through some help with Edie, she learns that she can and will move on. She will always love her fiance, but it is okay to love someone else. 

I loved the history aspects of the story and seeing the city I now call home, Berlin, as it was then. Edie has such a wonderful way of explaining things that I just imagine what everything here looked like when she was here. I loved her story, it was just Ali got on my nerves a bit with her ridiculousness. Her not telling people what she thinks and feels, her never going to move on because that is reasonable, just the way she was. I am glad for Edie in this story as she really made the book for me. An interesting read. 

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Available on

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Release Day!! Love Hacked by Penny Reid

1984 by George Orwell

Review: Landon & Shay: Part Two (L&S Duet #2) by Brittainy C. Cherry