Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Everlasting #20, 2007, Out of print, Available digitally
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: My print copy is brand new and unsigned but I'm fairly certain I must have picked this up in either a conference goodie room or a local RWA chapter event. That means it was a freebie and a category romance so of course it was in my TBR.
The Review: Everlasting originally started out as a mini-series within the sadly departed and still deeply mourned Harlequin SuperRomance line. Eventually Harlequin spun it off into it's own short-lived (about a year?) line where the marketing was "Every great love has a story to tell." That translated to non-traditional "historical" settings (mid-20th century in some cases) and present-day settings featuring older couples and plots that leaned in on second chance, marriage in trouble etc. I collected a few of these but it was never a line I was actively drawn to or mourned after Harlequin pulled the plug.
Melinda Thompson is a speech writer for a senator, now living in D.C., after her husband, Nick, is deployed for a second tour in Afghanistan, their marriage in the final death throes. She's upset he hasn't left the Army Reserves yet and that they've been unable to get pregnant. He's upset that she wants to chuck her teaching job to move to D.C. and write speeches for the senator. They haven't been speaking, Nick being overseas and Melinda dealing with a demanding job and the recent death of her beloved grandmother, who essentially raised her. Well now Melinda is back home in Buffalo, New York - the senator grudgingly allowing her two weeks off so she can look in on Grandpa Jack. What Melinda didn't expect was to walk into her own house, the one she used to share with Nick, to discover he too is back in town.
When Melinda goes to check on Grandpa Jack he gives her two journals, one belonging to him and one belonging to her grandmother - both written during and immediately after World War II. Jack implores Melinda to read them right away, it was her grandmother's wish - which Melinda, of course, does. Melinda always knew her grandparents met during the war - what she didn't know was that her beloved grandmother was a member of the Belgian Resistance, that her grandfather worked for British Intelligence, and Jack was not Grammy's first husband....
The story is told in dual timelines, present day Buffalo and through the journal entries of Jack's and Grammy Esmèe's journals. There's a good, compelling story here with what should be high stakes conflict. Unfortunately it's wasted on a present day couple who were generally terrible and the poor execution of the World War II storyline told through journal entries.
Here's the problem with the journal entries: It's tell, tell, tell. A more elegant way to put this is to steal from Miss Bates who recently wrote in a review for a completely different book, that that writer "recounts without telling at the reader." Folks, what we have in A Rendezvous to Remember is the opposite. It's all tell, no show. And because it's all tell and no show I have less than zero investment in either couple or their conflict. I should have been on the edge of my seat reading about Esmèe's work with the Belgian Resistance, her first marriage to a vilely abusive husband, of Jack's dangerous work behind enemy lines and his eventual time served in a horrid POW camp. I've been more riveted reading dry-as-dust nonfiction treatises.
The present day storyline doesn't help matters. Nick has lost the lower half of his left leg to an IED explosion but is hiding that (somehow?!) from Melinda because he doesn't want her to come back to him out of pity. I realize that there have been amazing advancements in prosthetics but really?! He had served her with divorce papers but she still didn't find out about his injury? Either from his family or the Army? There's not a dashed off mention in the story that she was removed as his next of kin notification so how?! Granted, I don't know much about prosthetics but this one strained for me. I mean, maybe it's possible but I wasn't buying it - which still makes it a problem. I wasn't convinced that she just wouldn't notice something like that.
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| Original cover |
Great, I hate both of them. She's selfish and whiny and he's an ass.
Of course in the end it's all right as rain. Melinda gets through the journals. Her and Nick find their way back to each other and we get an epilogue where she squirts out a kid at age 41. There's no confirmation (!!!) but presumably she's given up her high-pressured demanding job for the senator and is back in Buffalo playing happy homemaker. Or maybe she went back to teaching. Whatever. There's several mentions in the book that she wanted "more," wanted to "escape" Buffalo, and it's a big factor on why their marriage hit the skids in the first place but in the final chapter nothing is confirmed. I'm assuming she quit the senator and moved back to Nick and Buffalo because Nick mentions he wants to leave behind accounting and open his own landscaping / garden center business.
Besides hating both Melinda and Nick (which I guess means they maybe deserve each other? Hey, maybe this book does work?) the World War II storyline isn't half-bad but there's absolutely no juice behind it. It's like a cake you take out of the oven too soon. The edges are close to done but you still have raw batter in the center. It's a quick read and I got a kick out of the Buffalo setting (having lived there in my late teens / early 20s) but that's really about it. Oh well, one more off the pile.
Final Grade = D+
4 comments:
Ugh, sorry this one was such a dud! If there's anything worse than one grating storyline, it's two, with the second told via diary entries. I read a Loveswept for the TBR Challenge last year (I think) that had the same issue. I wanted to chuck the book against the wall!
I've never heard of this line from Harlequin, but apparently they've dipped their toes in a lot of different ponds for a short amount of time. I never knew they had a YA imprint until I found a vintage book from it on PBS! It is so stereotypically 80s that I can't wait to read it, LOL.
I feel bad that I haven't been able to participate in about 4 months but good news! I FINALLY unpacked Mount TBR yesterday, so I hope to get back on this train sooner rather than later. I've missed not only my books, but the comraderie of the Challenge. Thank you for continuing to host it!!
Oh Wendy, what rotten luck! (I love me some well executed WWII secondary romances--Suzanne Brockmann's always hit the spot for me).
I'm late with my own review, though the book was GREAT, because I'm having bad sleep=bad brain right now. Hopefully later today!
@Eurohackie: yay for unpacking! Here's to much good reading coming your way soon.
I don't know that I could finish a book where I hated both main characters; it's hard enough hating one! But it's another one off the pile as you say.
I posted last month's book review today... I'm slowly catching up.
Eurohackie: The WWII could have been really good but it was so flat and lifeless, stuck in "journal entry hell" that it never had a chance to flourish. All that high stakes conflict utterly wasted. And yippee for unpacking the TBR!
AL: It could have been so good and instead the WWII storyline was just so very blah.
Jen: I was about 1/3 of the way through it and was like, "I should DNF this." But I ended up not DNF'ing it because even though I say ALL THE TIME that it's OK to DNF for the TBR Challenge, I'm terrible at taking my own advice. Also I'm not great about DNF'ing category romances as a general rule and even though nothing about this book worked for me it was still a quick read - which I know makes no sense.
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