“The biggest irony about that night is that I was always scared to fly. Always. Ever since I was old enough to think about it. It seemed counterintuitive. Even a little arrogant. Why go up when gravity clearly wanted us to stay down?”
How To Walk Away
By Katherine Center
Source: Advance review copy
Margaret Jacobson can’t believe she’s let herself be talked into taking a plane ride but Chip wants to celebrate and besides he has a very important question to ask her and she said yes. She’s just agreed to marry him and then things go very, tragically wrong.
The plane crashes and at first Maggie thinks if she can just get her leg pulled out from where it seems stuck then all will be fine. They should even be able to make it back to town in no time and head out for dinner but once the ambulance is there and the rescue starts to happen it’s clear that Maggie and Chip won’t be going out to dinner that night.
Chip escaped the accident without barely a scratch but Maggie has suffered burns and can’t walk. She is going to face a long road ahead of her but as the days turn to weeks it looks like she’ll be facing them alone as Chip can’t quite cope with her injuries and the fact that he feels responsible.
About the only good thing in Maggie’s life is that her sister, Kitty, whom she hasn’t seen in years and is back. While Maggie knows there are things her family needs to work through, she’s learning to accept her limitations, realize that the grand plans she had for her life are changed and deal with a handsome but surly physical therapist.
While this a quick read I found it quite predictable. That’s not necessarily a bad thing at times if at least I’m really enjoying the characters and their interactions but not so with this book. I especially did not like the main love interest and found it hard to believe he could get away being that awful to a patient. Well, I believe it but why would anyone fall for him?
I just started reading another book by this author a few days ago and so far so good (shall see if I’d continue reading it). I think I’ll probably skip this one.
Lately I’ve started and stopped a couple of books that were just not for me. I’m not sure if I’m suffering from ‘overkill’ in some thematic areas or if I’m just a bit weary of a lot of what’s published lately. Your thoughts on this one sound a lot like what I’ve been experiencing with the predictability angle. I own this book, but haven’t read it yet. I keep meaning to try her books and so I’ll likely get around to this one eventually. She’s really popular at the library and did an event recently at the new Lark & Owl bookstore in Georgetown. I wasn’t able to attend, but I want to watch for other authors that they might bring in for events. Georgetown is a lot closer to me than Book People and the Central Library in downtown Austin.
I’ve abandoned more books than usual lately, so I’m with Kay about the overkill–too many books with the same plots and themes. That doesn’t mean that I mind some predictability on occasion if all else stacks up. I don’t usually choose this genre, but the good doctor sounds a bit like old Heathcliff. 🙂
Not enough good men out there. She’s settling.