Julia is making dinner for her husband's sixtieth birthday party and needs to buy seafood for her crabcakes. On a whim, she goes to a market out of her usual orbit, and bumps into her old friend Helen, who she hasn't seen in years. She begins to think back to the time when she and Helen were close and to the incident that rocked her life and almost upended her marriage.
Rewind twenty years to when Julia as a young mother is aching for her nap as she goes to drop her four-year-old at nursery school. She usually doesn't sleep at night, so a three hour respite from motherhood is her treat-unfortunately, Ben won't exit the car. She gives in and on a kid-centric whirlwind entertainment spree, she finally drops into the botanical garden where she meets earth mother Helen, who becomes her friend and confidante. Her husband Mark is always at work or going to conferences, she hasn't seen or heard from her mother in years (not that she'd want to,) her father is dead, and she has made it a point to go through life without leaving a footprint. Helen is her touchstone and sanity, the one who gives her permission to take a breath. She is also the inadvertent catalyst for her daughter's existence.
When Julia's now twenty-four year old son and his pregnant girlfriend Sunny decide to marry after knowing each other for a month, the wedding planning brings up a whole set of issues revolving around love, trust, family, and forgiveness. Hopefully her marriage will be strong enough to weather the storm.
Lombardo is an extraordinary writer. As we follow Julia's journey, from her compromised relationship with her mother to her unlikely marriage with the love of her life, the author steers us through every crisis with a deft and steady hand. I read this 500 hundred page novel in three days because I could not tear myself away. As some people already know from the success of her first novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, Lombardo is absolutely one to watch.
Reviewed by Donna Ballard
Publication date - June 18, 2024
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