Hello everyone!
And another one bites the dust, as they say LOL.
As you can tell, I had a Serenity Woods binge-read over my summer vacation, but that's pretty much standard procedure for me I think. When it all boils down to it, I think, if I went and counted, that I own pretty much all of her books, or at the very least the majority of them.
I know. I may be a little obsessed. I can't help but think there are worse things to obsess over, however, because at least with these stories I'm getting happily ever afters out of the deal!
I was also lucky enough to get a copy of the book from the author herself, which is AWESOME.
Unfortunately I didn't really get the chance to read it before taking off to Croatia, which is why the review seems to come a little bit later than is usual for her books (I normally gobble them down on release day, or the day after if I'm really busy that first round).
So why don't we all sit back and relax while navigating through this review?
Between You, Me, and the Bedpost, here we come.
How did this happen again?
I have no idea. This will have to be fixed in the future, since I've read the lot, but I probably didn't want to put up reviews of the first two when the rest of the series hadn't been finished yet at the time when I read them. Now, though, the cycle seems to be complete, although we did get a glimpse of the future for the bar and all so MAYBE we'll be getting more? You never know, but I'm not going to say no to that either!
I'm getting ahead of myself, however.
Between the Sheets is a bar, owned by one Beck, a character you come to know and love in the previous books before you hit his own, and you keep on wondering just what happened between him and his wife, Josie. See, they've been separated for almost two years and their divorce is about to be finalized, but all their friends in the group that gets together at the bar have been attempting to get them back together in some way, shape or form.
I'd have done the same thing, honestly. They just seem to good to be over like that!
There's speculation that Beck might have cheated, but knowing the character I was like ... that's impossible, unless someone walloped him over the head for that time. I had my hunch about what had actually happened, and it proved to be correct, only I didn't realize just how far the hunch was going to go.
Beck announces that he's re-entered the dating scene, having gone out for drinks a little while ago with someone new, and Josie begins to realize their relationship might well and truly be over, although you can see, as the reader, that she's not 100% okay with it, either.
Truth be told, these two still love each other. So why aren't they together, you ask?
Well, we readers are hit with it when the girls get together for a hen's night for one of them, and the guys head to the bar for a stag night:
Beck and Josie have one son, Edward, but after his birth Josie sort of ... I can't really describe it properly, but she was DESPERATE for another child, and that took a toll on the marriage to begin with because, if you can imagine, everything they did became a slave to her trying to get pregnant. Beck did what she asked him to, trying not to feel resentment to basically being relegated to sperm donor, and then she finally DID get pregnant.
Only it didn't last.
We learn that the couple suffered a miscarriage that eventually broke them apart, firstly because of what led up to said miscarriage, and secondly because, while Beck allowed himself to grieve and wanted to help his wife, Josie closed-off and wouldn't let him near, so the relationship basically fractured when he eventually had to walk away for his own sanity.
This is a delicate topic and you have to be a mature enough reader to go through it, I'll admit; because naive ones will think, but why didn't he just stick it out? You know, prince-on-white-horse style kind of thing? Why wasn't he patient and why didn't he wait?
It's a little bit different when it's actually happening. Sometimes, you need a break, and walking away is the only thing to do.
Of course, since this is a Serenity Woods book, though, you know there's a reconciliation on the horizon, and funnily enough it begins during the actual wedding of the friends that started the avalanche of relationship admissions, where Beck and Josie end up in bed together and enjoy themselves immensely without the burden of creating another life hanging over their heads.
This only muddles the situation further, however, since their divorce is pretty much right around the corner, and they end up having sex in her backyard as well soon afterwards (which has me smiling like an idiot, mind you).
What to do now?
I never realized this was essentially a Christmas book (it's kind of difficult because Christmas down under happens during summer time so I never clue in initially because for me, Christmas means snow and twinkling lights and cold!), which just means I'll have to read it again in December, mind, but the thing is, just before Christmas Edward falls sick.
Now, Beck and Josie share custody though they never really arranged anything through lawyers, they were civilized enough to arrange it themselves, and they'd just been talking how things might go if Beck moves to a different city for a new job he interviewed for in an old, remodeled hotel (we see this particular hotel and it's remarkable owners in Trick or Treat, a book from the original series Treats to Tempt You which eventually launched its spin-off, Between the Sheets, and I am HOPING there might be some romances centered around it in the future), but all of that becomes moot point when their son gets sick.
Initially, Beck heads off to Josie's, then they take the boy to the ER, and after that Beck suggests Josie and Edward come stay with him in the family home until Christmas, because he wants to see what happens if the two of them actually live together again.
And well, can we say some Christmas magic happens?
Ironically, because of the Christmas holidays, they can't get through to their lawyers to cancel the divorce so that one goes through and the two of them just laugh and roll their eyes; on Valentine's Day, Beck surprises Josie by arranging a small ceremony to get married again, with all their friends present, and Josie says yes!
So after all the trials and tribulations, their relationship emerges stronger than ever, with the caveat that they won't be trying for any more children since that was what nearly killed them both.
It should also be noted that Beck did just about everything after the miscarriage to help Josie; he wasn't just trying half-heartedly and then walked away, he was practically begging her to let him in, but unfortunately Josie's way of processing was entirely different, despite being a counsellor herself.
And I'd add a little bit of a warning to any reader as well, because the miscarriage itself IS described in the book, so if you don't feel prepared for that, you might have to rethink reading this one.
That being said, however, I LOVED this story. It had a slightly different, much more mature feel to it, which is odd to say since most of Ms Woods' books deal with some issue or other in a very tasteful and intelligent way, but I think this one, because the majority of readers are women and miscarriage is very real, hit closer to home than most. It was beautifully done, and the wait to see what happened with Beck and Josie was SO worth it.
As was their happily ever after, because knowing now that they eventually have a boat and sail around in their retirement years is worth more than a pot of gold.
If you want to dive Between the Sheets (see what I did there!), I'd suggest you start at the beginning, however, not with this book - the first in the series is A Secret Between Friends. I highly recommend it so you'll understand the friendship dynamics between the couples and who the rest of the characters helping Beck and Josie are. Also, how else will you know who Genie is and why everyone's so excited that she's pregnant??
Since autumn is just around the corner here in the north, pick a book, grab a cozy sweater, and enjoy! You won't regret it.
xx
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment