“Looks like it’s going to be a long thaw.”
Abby has always had a safety net, unlike her cousin Juliet, who has an absent father and a drunk mother who depends on her financially. Abby is her cousin’s keeper and protector. Not that Juliet can’t protect herself…
Juliet is tough, in many aspects of her life, except when it comes to love. Perhaps her poor choices in men are because her father abandoned her and her sisters at a young age. All Juliet wants is a man who won’t leave her, and then there is Abby, who has a list of 50 qualities that are required in her perfect mate.
Allen made a mistake ten years ago, and as a result he lost his wife and his daughters. He rationalizes that they don’t need him, they have each other, but he tells his family otherwise. At Thanksgiving dinner, a family secret is let out, leaving everybody to question, “why?”, and “how could I have missed so much?” “What can be done to make things right?”
This broken family sets out to make things right, because life goes on, and as long as life goes on, there will be more chances to get it right.
I liked this story, because I like stories that center around family. Juliet and Abby have a bond that cannot be broken. Even after not seeing each other for ten years, they immediately click back together. They take care of, and lean on one another. These girls act more like sisters than cousins. They are lucky to have this bond, and they both need each other more than ever.
I did have some problems with this story though. For one, there are no chapters. The story is separated by segments, chronicling each character’s POV, (specifically Abby, Juliet, Mary the Grandmother, Rachel the aunt/mother, and Allen the uncle/father). There was a lot of back story throughout the book. It would get to a really good part, and the next segment would go way back in time which irritated me. If the story was structured differently, I would have given it 4 stars.
Another thing I found peculiar, but in no way did I take it into consideration for my review, was that I thought the author was from the United Kingdom. I say that because of her language: “favour”, “kerb”, “pyjama”, “favourite”, “colour”, “neighbour”, “behaviour”, etc. When I saw she was from New England, I was very surprised. I wonder why she writes British-English?
The ending was anti-climatic, and disappointing. I felt that there should have been more.
This is what I took away from the The Long Thaw, by Katie O’Rourke, that life goes on. That as long as you are here breathing on this earth, you have a second chance at making things right! What a powerful message!
Overall, this is a good story, and I did like it. 3 Stars!
***3 Star Rating: I liked this book. The story was interesting and it held my interest. I would recommend it!
A Well Read Woman 
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British publisher changes words in the book. I agree, it’s disturbing.
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You are exactly right! The Author told me that herself. 🙂 I didn’t know what the heck was going on! =)
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Nice review
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