Tome Thursday: Twice Knightley in My Bed

 

Hello everyone!

 

For the first time in what feels like ... quite a bit, actually, I have a book review that is not, in fact, from BookSirens.

 

Shocking, I know!

 

This one comes from an author near and dear to my heart, and really I just need to go right back through her entire bibliography and read them all over again, because the universe that she's interwoven through each of her works is breathtakingly beautiful.

 

And also, it's mostly all going down in New Zealand.

 

Do you need any more reason than that to escape? I don't think so!

 

The author I'm talking about is Serenity Woods. And if you've been following my blog for a bit, you'll know I have a TON of her books already reviewed on here.

 

This one, however, releases over the coming weekend. I consider myself exceptionally lucky enough to have been sent an ARC, so here you go guys. 

 

Twice Knightley in My Bed, just for you.

 

Now as I've said, I have a LOT of books already reviewed by this particular author, so I'm not going to be listing them all here. The list would probably be longer than this page! Instead, I'll link you to the search results if you type in Serenity Woods, and hey presto. You should have them all at the touch of your fingertips.

 

Onward, then, with Twice Knightley.

 

... and yes, you're reading that correctly. It's a word play.

 

The Knightley in question just so happens to be one of the vets at the wildlife hospital our story is set in - in New Zealand, naturally - and he also happens to be our hero who just returns from a month-long trip to Australia, where he went to both advance professionally, help out, and to try and forget the fact he's crushing on his best friend's little sister.

Said sister, Em, is a little difficult NOT to love because she's such a ball of sunshine - and she helps basically everyone!

At the beginning of the book she's picking up Naomi from the airport, who's flown in for an interview to be personal assistant to Knightley's brother (I'm also secretly hoping for a sequel focusing on those two, so be sure to read, review and buy this book that we might get it!).

Naomi turns out to be a really sweet and funny individual, and she fits in nicely with the group of Em, her brother Gabe and sister Bella, as well as Knightley, Rob and John, and Frankie, another one of the people working at the wildlife hospital.

Now Knightley, Rob and John all came to stay with the family as kids after their father killed their mother when she was pregnant with her fourth child. It was termed as manslaughter and so he's serving life sentence with no option of parole. The boys were then raised alongside the biological children, and as is natural in these cases, John and Bella got together, had two kids of their own, and indeed for a good portion of the book are preparing for their wedding!

Em and Knightley, meanwhile, are kind of dancing around one another, and she's sort of hoping the Australian visiting vet will ask her to be his date to the wedding, but then she catches him kissing another of the nurses, so it's all gone down the drain, and little by little, she and Knightley seem to draw ever closer.

It's inevitable, really.

And the irony here is that Em is, in fact, still a virgin at twenty-one (it should be noted that there is NOTHING wrong with that at all, because you always do things on your own timeline, not someone else's), and Knightley is nine years older than her. There's a whole host of other things, primarily that he doesn't want kids because he's afraid of passing on some of his terrible anger management issues (his own logic, not anyone else's, mind) he's convinced he inherited from his father.

But the over-arching plot here is that Em's mother passed away from Huntington's disease about a year or two prior to the beginning of the novel - and while the three kids initially decided not to get tested (as this disease is carried forward through genetics), Em now chooses to do so, because she just has to know.

If she is, in fact, at risk and might experience an onset of the disease? She isn't going forward with a romantic relationship of any kind, especially not with Knightley, as she believes her partner doesn't deserve what she and her family went through while her mother's health deteriorated.

I won't go into full detail of just what went down there towards the end, but I'd like to attach a slight warning to any potential readers that it can be pretty gritty stuff. Anyone ever dealing with any kind of disease among loved ones will tell you it's ALWAYS hard, but particularly so when the loved ones begin changing their behaviour and their personalities shift, which is what occurs here as well.

So what happens is that, Em and Knightley get together after Bella's wedding, or at least, get together in the sense that they're having sex, and he accompanies her to most of her counseling sessions prior to getting tested.

Then Em decides to move forward with the test on her own, and kind of freezes Knightley out during the waiting period of getting the results. Again, this is coming from the place of her wishing to protect him, but we as readers will probably mostly see this as her taking away any power he has in making the decisions on his own, because by this point in the book, some other things have happened.

Namely, Knightley's father reaches out from prison and wants to see him, so Knightley ends up going, to learn that the man is dying of pancreatic cancer, and that he at least knows he's done one good thing in his life: left the boys with Em's father, for the other man to raise into men.

After this, Knightley is basically convinced he wants Em in sickness and in health, no matter what - he knew this before, already, but it kind of solidifies after the prison visit - and IN THE MEANTIME, while she's convinced she's experiencing early onset, her dad is there like.

Girl. When was the last time you had your period?

DUN DUN DUNNN!

That's right, Mr. Twice Knightley managed to get her pregnant, and she tells him as much when he comes to lay his heart at her feet.

Not only that, but Em's test? It's negative. She's never getting the disease. There's literally NO danger to hr or to her children, which is another thing for her and Knightley to celebrate. Her brother is currently at a point in his life where he doesn't think he'll ever get tested, but Bella probably, or possibly, will for the sake of her two girls, but later on when the girls are older.

And just like that, Em and Knightley have their happily ever after - the vet clinic is expanding, she's hired as property manager (officially), Knightley will be moving in with her and her father, and all's well that ends well honestly!

 

But I'll admit. MAN DID I CRY.

I needed some recovery time after this one.

I'm usually almost always on board with the books Serenity Woods ends up writing, so I wasn't anticipating any disappointment really, and it didn't happen either. It's a lovely story from start to finish, absolutely beautiful and incredibly poignant!

Em is such a vibrant, colourful character and I like the fact that she stood up for herself to defend the fact she didn't do her gap year or go to university, but she was OKAY with that and felt much better just being hands-on with the vet clinic. Her heart is ridiculously big, and I was really cheering at the end of the book for her.

Knightley is such a cool guy and obviously very dedicated to his job and to the people around him. I enjoyed watching his interactions with everyone, especially with the tough storyline he has in the book regarding his own biological father ... I think the nature vs. nurture was a really great thing to tackle and is done superbly well in this one.

The supporting cast are wonderful AND as a bonus! We get to see some characters pop up that are featured in other books, so it's really, really great to see the world come together like this. It's so heartwarming! (Also with Halloween approaching, I may need to read Fox's book again ...)

The one thing that I personally felt just a bit ... I don't even know how to put it. It's not disappointed and it's not miffed, it's just A feeling of a sort. I really wanted Em to have Knightley be the one to go with her to hear the news. I don't even know why, because her dad being there is equally as important obviously, and I bawled my eyes out reading those scenes regardless. But I suppose I just feel a little bit like she kinda froze the love of her life out a little here. I can probably understand the why of it - and like I said the scenes all work and if you don't shed a tear your heart is made of stone. Guess I just wish she'd have let Knightley in a bit more on the matter, you know?

HOWEVER. Bottom line. The characters, fantastic. New Zealand, as always, gorgeous. The story, heart-stoppingly beautiful. The writing, absolutely lovely and engaging. The message, infinitely timeless.

So if you haven't picked the book up yet, what're you waiting for? Have a go this weekend!

In the meantime, don't mind me as I sit in a corner somewhere patiently waiting for Rob and Naomi's book ...

xx

*image not mine

Serenity Woods