Review: “Maplewood”
This is my third book by this author, and in each case she has reached out directly. You can find her other books here:
The Premise
Following the tragic loss of her husband and stepson, Amanda struggles with her grief and loneliness. At her mother’s suggestion, she decides to purchase her childhood home and move across the country, far from the ghosts of loss and death. As she reacclimatises to the warm cocoon of her family and friends, she is nudged by friends in the direction of a blast from the past — her high school boyfriend Jonathan. Suffering from his own pain after his divorce, they find solace in each other, and romance soon blossoms again. But can love shine through their respective walls of darkness, for them to truly find their way back to each other?
The Pros & Cons
This was an amazing read that blew me away, and my favourite so far by this author. It is a story of second chance romance, crippling grief, unbelievable loss, and redemption. There is a lot to love here — the way the two former lovers take their time to find each other again, each carrying their own baggage; Amanda’s relationships with her friends and family that show difficult emotions and believable characters struggling with their day-to-day lives; the descriptive dissonance of tragedy that ruptures a family; and so much more. I also liked the way Amanda finds a new lease on life by shifting her mindset towards work, even though she’s well established in her career. It’s never too late to go back — in so many ways; this was the lasting overall message that stayed with me.
I loved this and enjoyed it a lot, so it’s hard to pick at flaws, but I always try to be fair. If anything, coming down to the end, there’s a “big event” that happens suddenly in the last few chapters and then is quickly resolved; I felt as though this needed to either come earlier, or for it to have more fleshing out afterwards. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for it to end!
Conclusion
This was a really great novel and one I would highly recommend to other readers. There are so many messages here, and they’re not hitting you over the head like in some other books — it is beautifully crafted, leaping from one heavy subject to another, and yet still managing to treat each with delicate finesse. Despite the heavy overtures of death, mental illness, and so much more, there is a bubble of hope and survival that lifts your spirit as you read all the way to the end. What I love about this author is that each of her books is distinctly different from the other, and there is no formula or trope or preconception that you can really have of what to expect — each book is a surprise, and this one was a really great surprise. I loved it, and look forward to reading more by this author — she’s getting better with each book, so I can’t wait for the next one!
