My Rating: 5 stars
From the beginning of the year until now, I’ve read 21
books and so far, not a single one of them had reached 5 star level for me.
Don’t get me wrong — there were plenty of excellent books in that mix and
quite a few that, regardless of whether I rated them 4 or 4.5 stars, I still
enjoyed greatly and even loved, but instinctually, somehow, they just didn’t
feel like 5 star reads. Well, with I’d Give Anything,
the newest novel by renowned author Marisa de los Santos, it looks like I have
finally found my first 5 star read of the year!
In this beautifully written, heartfelt story, the close
friendship between 4 high school seniors — Ginny, Kirsten, Gray, and CJ — is
forever changed one night when a fire breaks out during a football game at
their school. Gray’s father, a fire fighter, perishes in the fire and
immediately, Gray’s 3 best friends are there for him, ready to support him
through the tragedy. But then Ginny makes a devastating discovery about
the fire, which she decides to keep from her 3 friends — this secret not only
shatters Ginny’s world, it also ends up destroying their friendship. Over
the next twenty years, Ginny gradually puts the past behind her, and after
moving back to her hometown upon graduating from college, she builds a quiet
life with her husband Harris and their teenage daughter Avery. When her
husband becomes embroiled in a scandal at work, Ginny experiences turbulence in
her carefully constructed life once again and as she tries to deal with the
fallout from that scandal, she ends up coming face-to-face with the 20-year-old
secret that she thought had been buried long ago.
For me, the best character-driven stories are the ones
where nearly all of the characters (whether main or supporting) are
realistically drawn in ways that make them relatable and easy to connect with —
pretty much to the point that the characters feel like old friends whom I don’t
want to part with even when the story is over. Ginny and Avery were
characters I adored from the getgo and rooted for throughout the story — both
were written in a way that felt so raw and real. It’s refreshing to read
about characters whose experiences hew so closely to what many of us may
encounter at different points in our lives — as I watched Ginny work through
the various challenges she faced, not only with her family, but also with her
friends, I recognized some of her struggles and was able to resonate on an
emotional level. All the other characters, regardless of
whether they only appeared for a few pages or were a constant throughout the
entire story, were also well-developed and memorable. I also loved the way the various relationships
were depicted in this story. We all know
that, in real life, the complexities when it comes to relationships are endless
– whether it’s family relationships, friendships, work relationships, or mere
acquaintances -- there are so many nuances that are difficult to capture
accurately in a fictional story. Yet
this book does it -- and does it well!
This was a profound read that left me with much food-for-thought,
not just as it pertains to relationships, but also life and its
intricacies. It covers a lot of ground in
its exploration of themes such as family, love, friendship, truth, regret, forgiveness,
and so much more. One of the insights
that stood out the most to me pertained to love and forgiveness, that both are not
mutually exclusive of each other insofar as the inability to forgive someone
for their actions does not preclude the ability to still love them and care
deeply about them. The ending brought me close to tears, as did
several other parts of the story.
I like the way Marisa de los Santos writes as well as the
way she is able to tell such an emotionally nuanced story so effortlessly. I read this book in 2 sittings over the
weekend, putting it down only once to tend to the necessities of life and then
when I picked it up again, I didn’t want it to end. If there is anything to complain about with
this book, it’s that I wish it had been longer (the ARC was less than 300 pages)
so that I could spend more time with these characters. I’ve actually had several of this author’s
works on my TBR for quite some time, but didn’t have a chance to get to any of
them previously — well, now I will definitely be exploring her backlist while I
wait patiently for her next book, whenever that may be.
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