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416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 6, 2000
4.5 Heartbreaking stars
Buddy read with the lovely Geishas
“You can’t choose who you love, Kelly, but you can waste it. Why on earth would anyone want to waste it?”
Fifty-six years ago Charles Ashton and Joe Paoletti both fought in the Second World War, they fell in love with the same woman, Cybele Desjardins, although only one of them had her love in return and both learned the true devastation of loss. They became best friend over the years, an unlikely friendship between the wealthy, jaded Charles and the poor, good-hearted Joe who became his gardener and once again loss has come knocking on their doors when Charles has only a few months left to live after being diagnosed with cancer.
Dr. Kelly Ashton has returned to care for her father, the father she always desperately wanted love and approval from but instead she received coldness and a father who was more drunk than sober. But things get more bearable when Navy SEAL lieutenant Tom Paoletti, Joe’s nephew, is forced to return to his hometown on medical leave after a near-fatal head injury. Sixteen years ago the infatuation between them almost became more, but Tom left before anything could happen. Now fate has given them a second chance at happiness.
Yes, it was Joe’s story, but it was his story, too. It was his life, his secrets, his failures.
His grief.
Nearly sixty years of running from himself, from all his pain, all his heartache, and here he was. Still here.
Still aching.
I know the blurb says that this book is about Tom and Kelly but for me it really was about Charles, Joe, their heartbreaking past and the true hero back then when they fought the war. Like most wars, the ones that risked and suffered the most, their stories remained untold and when Joe decided to tell the true story of what happened back then, it opened so much pain for him but also for Charles, who had been keeping his shattered heart hidden by drinking to forget all the memories of Cybele.
“I tried so hard to do the right thing, to stay away from her, but in the end I failed. I gave in, and do you know, I would’ve sold my soul to the devil to be free to love her, to spend my life with her. I loved her that much. It was that strong, that powerful.”
My heart just hurt for Joe and especially for Charles and the devastating loss they had suffered during the war.
“I want what I can’t have.”
“Fifty-six years, and still, all I want is to have her back.”
I can’t remember the last time I cried so much during a book and I think the author did a brilliant job at showing the harshness and the painful and beautiful emotions they had all experienced back then and now. And knowing that Joe was once again losing someone he loved, Charles, just made the sadness so much worse.
He was romantic. David of the funny hair and awful plaid shirts was the most romantic man Mallory had ever met in her life.
Luckily the author added some much needed lightness with the blossoming young love between feisty Mallory Paoletti, Tom’s niece and the geeky David Sullivan. These two were so utterly adorable and I loved every moment of them.
I have to admit that I really didn’t care about Tom and Kelly. Their romance and interactions paled so much in comparison to all the depth and feeling the other characters evoked, that they felt like background noise to me.
This was my first book by this author and I’m blown away by how deeply she made me feel with this book, how much she made me cry. I definitely would recommend reading this book if you want to read a touching book about true love, how impossible it is to choose whom you love and the happiness and devastation it can bring. But be sure to keep some tissues close.
Originally read September 2014
What an emotional read. I went from laughing, to intrigue, to sadness, to happy and to heart-breaking. This was an amazing read, and strangely although the lead characters were great, it was the supporting cast and their stories who had me riveted.
Yeah, it was going to sound frigging crazy when he tried to explain. "Hi. I think I just saw the international terrorist that I spent four months tracking in ‘96 taking a cab out of Logan Airport. Yeah, that’s in Boston, Massachusetts, that teeming hotbed of international intrigue." Yeah, right.Book was published, as I obviously immediately checked, in 2000. I almost wondered if the author had had any uncomfortable talks with Homeland Security for it, but one hopes not.
Joe had been a good-looking man, too, but Charles had had a magical air about him. He still had it, even at eighty. Even back when he was drinking and at his most cruel and verbally abusive, even then, the spark didn’t quite go out.