by Tay Marley
After the loss of Addie’s older sister, best friend, and business partner, Margo, she drops everything and unexpectedly flees to small-town Texas. Once there, she is taken in by a kind farming family. Of course, the son, Zac, is a mega-babe, the daughter goes out of her way to include Addie, and the niece unknowingly brings back a crucial piece of her past. Addie has to learn she can’t run away from what she hasn’t faced.
It turns out, I’m pretty picky when it comes to romance. This one felt a bit outside my comfort zone. Addie and Zac’s relationship felt too perfect and the main obstacle they face is a BIG DEAL but it isn’t really dealt with in a mature, authentic way. He helps her confront her grief which is quite admirable but they edge very close to the miscommunication trope which truly grinds my gears. That trope should be dead and buried. Never does it feel realistic, it only ever serves to frustrate me beyond measure.
I did feel that death and guilt were dealt with tactfully. While I found it somewhat strange how open Zac was with Addie in such a short amount of time, I think being able to relate to her sorrow was an important and well-done aspect of their bonding and of Addie’s growth (though I don’t feel that growth was as notable as it could have been). Addie’s grieving is a central theme of this novel that anchors the surrounding storylines and her anguish is a genuine representation of how it feels to lose someone you love.
“She wanted me to find balance. I felt like I had been doing more of that in the last few weeks. Which made me feel guilty. I was living when she couldn’t.”
Meant For Me, p. 99
There’s a significant plot point that I’m leaving out because it feels a bit like a spoiler but this review wouldn’t feel complete without a least acknowledging it in some capacity. This story gets a bit soap-y. The family building is complicated and while I want to be cautious of passing judgment (see quote below), the way things unfolded just felt like too much of a coincidence. I’m all for fate and for things that are “meant to be” but … no. This one was too much.
“‘We shouldn’t give people a hard time for choosing how to have a family.’”
Meant For Me, p. 123
It’s possible this is just my own penchant for pessimism but on the whole, I felt that these characters were too understanding and forgiving. The one circumstance where this didn’t prove to be the case was so far along in the story I was thinking, “Really?! Now you’ve decided a line has been crossed?” I might be too much of a grumpy Gus for these kinds of stories, but I am grateful to Tandem Collective for having gifted us this novel during our Toronto gathering in December.
shelfie books 