PDF A Curve in the Road eBook Julianne MacLean

Product details File Size 1840 KB Print Length 266 pages Publisher Lake Union Publishing (August 14, 2018) Publication Date August 14, 2018 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B079R8DY6F

A Curve in the Road eBook Julianne MacLean Reviews

• I have read the reviews on this book and understand why some people were disappointed. This book does not have car chases, sex scenes, violence or anything else that shows up these days in books. What it does have is a woman coming to terms with several major losses in her life and how she struggles through them. She’s in a car wreck. She’s a surgeon who can a longer practice her medicine. She loses her husband. There is a lot more to this story than I just wrote and this woman has to wade through all of this without having any way out. I think it is a very good study of how people manage when they are blindsided. There is a very light touch when it comes to romance because that is not what this book focuses on. It focuses on how you make decisions to go on with your life once you have had not one, not two, not three, but more life altering things happen in a short period of time. The woman does meet a man that she becomes interested in him and he shows interest in her and there there is hope that these two will find a future together. I consider this book women’s fiction. It is not a romance. That said it is a very good book. Also I used to my Google earth to look at the towns she discussed because I know nothing about Nova Scotia and find it is a beautiful place and I can see why it becomes part of the story.
• Thank goodness for two golden retrievers named Winston and Dorothy...and my sense of humor. (Not bragging, it just helped keep me from stopping the torture several times. Why? Because if you can't laugh at preposterous things, then this isn't the book for you. (And the spoilers begin.)
  
  I'm going to start by saying what I seem to always say...I don't like to give less than 3 stars to ANY author. Whether first time or award winning. It just goes against every one of my "At least they tried" fibers.
  
  But ~ This
  
  The odds of the drivers of two cars which collide on a highway, at night, in the rain, knowing each other is pretty slim. Right? So when the drivers end up not only knowing one another but being married to each other...ratchet up those odds because it happens within the first 3 chapters. It gets better...the drunk driver of the car that crossed the highway was the husband...and a well-respected cardiologist. The driver of the car which was struck on a rear quarter panel and sent spinning then flipping off into a ravine was the wife...and a well-respected general surgeon.
  He goes to the hospital first. She follows after having to be cut out of the car with the jaws of life.
  
  At this point she has NO idea who hit her. Not until someone brings her a box of personal effects found near the car. When she has her mother (whose house she'd just left) call her husband, she hears his phone ringing in the box they brought her and she figures out who's in the bay next to her.
  
  Remember, her legs were trapped, she has cuts and contusions all over her head and face (partially caused from debris and partially caused by her 90 lb. golden retriever who, not seat belted in, became a flailing missile of paws, claws and solid muscle). She jumps to her feet and rushes to the other bay to see her husband with everything but a good chance of survival. THEN...he codes and she, the surgeon, goes into doctor mode and begins compressions. -O_o- Really?
  
  It just gets better (or worse) as each chapter goes by. Not only does she have to come to terms with the fact that her husband dies before her eyes but he was dying anyway and hadn't told her. NO, I am NOT kidding. Terminal cancer and she hadn't known. And he was drunk when the accident occurred, and he was driving away from their house and into the town where her mom lives? Oh, there's more. Especially two very pivotal other secrets (I'm not giving up all of the dirt for you).
  
  Coincidentally, the vet who takes care of Winston the dog, is a widower and easy on the eyes. And he soon becomes her closest confidante. Wha????? She never met him before then. Texting the vet. Not texting the vet. "This has to stop." "No, I have to tell you."
  
  What if her son sees the texts.
  Seriously???
  Password Protect, doctor.
  
  She's talking to the vet on the phone at one point...very clandestine...in a room in her mom's house, with the door shut, so her son and mom can't hear. And..."I crossed my legs at the ankle." What? What? That's important why???
  
  Someone else mentioned the book's in first person. I usually don't mind that. Usually.
  But I swear if she thought (to herself) that "she would shoulder this burden alone" one. more. time.
  Especially given she's confided in the vet and her MOM repeatedly.
  She's shouldering nothing alone. Nothing.
  
  As excruciating as 95% of the book was, I have to admit there was promise at the beginning...and the last chapter wrapped it all up nicely. So...four chapters were good. The rest...not so much.
  
  Should you read it? I can't make that decision for you.
  Am I glad I read it? This will sound mean but yes, because I needed the laughs I got.
  And I loved the dogs.
  If I could gift it to you, I would.
  
  (Again, to the author, I'm so very sorry.)
• Abbie is leaving her Mom's to go back to Halifax when she has a feeling of impending doom. As she is driving on the highway a car crosses the center line and hits Annie's SUV which sends her into a ravine. Her dog Winston is with her and he is thrown from the vehicle. Using the Jaws of Life the fireman get her out of her vehicle. Going in the ambulance she finds out that the other driver is drunk while drunk.
  Abbie is ok except for a gash in her head so she is being kept at the hospital overnight. She goes to check on the other driver and finds it is her husband. They are both doctors at a big hospital in Halifax.
  One crazy scene leads to another and the agony of losing your husband on top of all the secrets Annie finds out about her husband. This story makes you think a lot about grieving and you make yourself move on with your life. A very heartfelt tale from a great author.
• Abbie McIntyre is a successful surgeon, happily married to a cardiologist, and mother to one son, an outstanding student in his final year of high school.
  
  On the way home from visiting her mother for the day, Abbie is hit by a drunk driver. Her injuries turn out to not be life threatening, but the driver of the other car is not so lucky. When she learns the person in the other car was her husband Alan, suddenly her perfect life has changed forever.
  
  Annie is very confused. Alan seldom drank, and certainly never to the point of inebriation. He was supposed to be doing his hospital rounds, miles away from the town where Abbie's mother lived and where the accident occurred. What was he doing there, and why was he behind the wheel drunk? Soon Abbie learns her wonderful husband of twenty years had secrets, and the "perfect life" she thought she had was never perfect.
  
  I thought the book was going to be better than it turned out to be. The characters were cardboard cutouts, not believable at all. Alan's dad and brother were unbelievably crude and obnoxious. Abbie's son Zach, the "perfect son" was unbelievably perfect. And when a perfectly handsome and gallant man enters the picture, it's obvious where this story is going...
  
  I found this book rather boring and predictable. It had the feel of a romance novel, although it wasn't labeled as such. (Nothing again romance novels, just not my favorite cup of tea.) And then I discovered that Julianne MacLean is primarily known as a romance writer. Go figure.
  
  Clearly Julianne MacLean has an avid fan base, as indicated by the scads of five star ratings. I'm certainly not disparaging their opinions. (Different strokes for different folks.) I found the story mildly entertaining. A solid three stars.