Thursday, June 10, 2010

Just Jennifer


The One that I Want by Allison Winn Scotch (Shaye Arehart, June 1, 2010)

What if you thought the life you were happily living was the one that you wanted only to learn that maybe you aren’t as happy as you thought you were and neither is everyone else around you?  Tilly Farmer is living what she thinks is her dream life:  she married her high school sweetheart, the couple lives in a house Tilly’s father bought for them in their home town where Tilly is the high school guidance counselor who gets to plan prom and the musical each year, reliving her high school years over and over again.  A chance meeting of a once close grammar school friend, who bequeaths to Tilly the gift of clarity, and Tilly begins seeing things that haven’t happened yet but that will alter the course of her life and the way she sees things.  At first, Tilly is a frustrating character, the cheerleader who always fixes things when it is clear her own life is in need of fixing.  Little by little, as Tilly accepts the chance she has been given, she is able to deal better with her alcoholic father, her little sister who has run away from her problems, and her own marriage, and maybe can finally find the life she wants to live, and is meant to live.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So many interesting stories!

Anonymous said...

Sounds interesting! I'd like to read this one...unless, of course, it turns out to be too sad at the end!

L.Z.

Anonymous said...

I started this book and couldn't get beyond page 80 (and that was generous; I could have stopped much sooner)! Characters hard to care about; writing flat. I compared notes w/two other people who had the same disappointed reaction. This author wrote a similar book several years ago w/the same "what if I took the other road" motif, and I also found it unappealing. patco 81