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The latest book that I’m reviewing is Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin.
Tessa is a stay-at-home mom, who is married to Nick, a handsome, charming doctor. Their marriage is in sort of a stagnant phase. It happens to even the best couples. Everyone is so busy trying to balance work, kids and a social life that the relationship isn’t as wonderful as it once was.
Nick meets Valerie, the mother of one of his patients. They seem to have chemistry. Are they going to have an affair? Will Tessa and Nick stay married?
I thought that Giffin does a really good job of describing the characters. It was easy to imagine what they would look and act like in real life.
It doesn’t have very many grammatical errors. It didn’t take very long to read this book, even though I fell asleep just about every time I picked it up.
It seemed to take a long time for anything interesting to almost happen. It’s more than likely that nothing really fascinating happened in this book. I felt like the book was more than half over before there was any hint of Nick and Valerie possibly starting an affair.
I didn’t feel bad for Tessa or Nick. Even though I’m a mom, I couldn’t relate to Tessa. She was a caricature of an almost perfect stay-at-home mom. Even when she was struggling, it was still probably better than a real stay-at-home mom’s worst day. Her character was not very interesting. It was more interesting to imagine beating her in tennis.
Valerie was likeable. She seemed real to me. She was not fake like the other moms. Valerie has a more interesting back story. Is it wrong that I wanted her to be happy more than I wanted Tessa to be happy?
Nick is a selfish jerk, but people love him. I’m not sure if anyone would be really happy with Nick, except Nick.
I didn’t get a sense of anything passionate happening in the marriage of Nick and Tessa – good or bad. Even when they were fighting, it was kind of boring. So the fighting doesn’t seem realistic. Giffin rushes through all of the parts that I would find interesting – the fighting and the possible affair. Where is the passion and the intensity? Apparently, it’s not in this book.
It’s not the worst book in the world. However, I think that people could spend their time reading something more worthwhile.
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