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A review by pn_hinton
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms
3.0
I never understood how a reader could read and love a book right up until close to the end. I was one who was like with all that invested time and joy, what thing towards the home stretch could possibly turn the tide that much.
After reading this book, now I understand.
I really enjoyed the majority of this book. Even if Amy was woefully naive in some aspects, I enjoyed seeing her take time for herself. Even though John (the not quite ex) kept calling her a martyr, I never viewed her as that. She was a woman who was abandoned by her husband, who was the sole bread winner at the time, when he acted like an overgrown child and fled the country and went halfway across the world. To add insult to this injury, he took up with another woman and never sent any type of monetary help to Amy. But she did what she had to do and took care of her kids and made sure that they could stay in their house to not further uproot their lives.
So, yes, her 'momspringa' was well-deserved. She deserved to go out and take a break and feel comforted in that someone was taking care of her kids. This also isn't just a 'for mom' things since single dads would need it to. Her embracing that as well as letting herself have fun was great and fun to read.
Then we got to the guilt part. And while I knew it was coming, since she was a mom, it was still infuriating to read. And that's where this book almost took a nosedive in rank for me. I didn't like how she guilted herself into cutting her vacation short. Parents deserve time off. It's exhausting being a parent and yes they chose the life but still...people choose pathways, people, careers, etc that they love all the time. That doesn't mean that they don't ever need or want a break.
I also didn't like how she left Daniel, the hot librarian, for a man who abandoned her and their kids. And it's not even like he went a few towns over. He went to the other side of the freaking globe and never sent them money. I'm one of those that I do believe in for better or for worse and will try to work out most martial problems. That said, there are hard deal breakers out there and abandoning us, going to the other side of the world, and taking up with a younger woman is one of them. For a moment the story played with the of Amy getting back with John and I legit would have thrown my Kindle (onto a soft surface I don't want to have to replace it) because he didn't deserve that second chance.
Luckily it didn't come to it. But the hint of it and the sudden appearance of plot points to further explain and in some ways try to excuse John's behavior lead to this lose points with me. This book took a turn in the last 13% that I feel it would have been stronger without. And the letters and the social media posts at the end seemed tacked on to increase the page count. But I still enjoyed most of it despite all that.
All that said, this rates more like 3.5 stars but we all know how Goodreads feels about half stars. And it wasn't enough to bump it up to 4 because of those points mentioned above. It is a perfect Spring Break or summer read though so I do recommend it for that.
After reading this book, now I understand.
I really enjoyed the majority of this book. Even if Amy was woefully naive in some aspects, I enjoyed seeing her take time for herself. Even though John (the not quite ex) kept calling her a martyr, I never viewed her as that. She was a woman who was abandoned by her husband, who was the sole bread winner at the time, when he acted like an overgrown child and fled the country and went halfway across the world. To add insult to this injury, he took up with another woman and never sent any type of monetary help to Amy. But she did what she had to do and took care of her kids and made sure that they could stay in their house to not further uproot their lives.
So, yes, her 'momspringa' was well-deserved. She deserved to go out and take a break and feel comforted in that someone was taking care of her kids. This also isn't just a 'for mom' things since single dads would need it to. Her embracing that as well as letting herself have fun was great and fun to read.
Then we got to the guilt part. And while I knew it was coming, since she was a mom, it was still infuriating to read. And that's where this book almost took a nosedive in rank for me. I didn't like how she guilted herself into cutting her vacation short. Parents deserve time off. It's exhausting being a parent and yes they chose the life but still...people choose pathways, people, careers, etc that they love all the time. That doesn't mean that they don't ever need or want a break.
I also didn't like how she left Daniel, the hot librarian, for a man who abandoned her and their kids. And it's not even like he went a few towns over. He went to the other side of the freaking globe and never sent them money. I'm one of those that I do believe in for better or for worse and will try to work out most martial problems. That said, there are hard deal breakers out there and abandoning us, going to the other side of the world, and taking up with a younger woman is one of them. For a moment the story played with the of Amy getting back with John and I legit would have thrown my Kindle (onto a soft surface I don't want to have to replace it) because he didn't deserve that second chance.
Luckily it didn't come to it. But the hint of it and the sudden appearance of plot points to further explain and in some ways try to excuse John's behavior lead to this lose points with me. This book took a turn in the last 13% that I feel it would have been stronger without. And the letters and the social media posts at the end seemed tacked on to increase the page count. But I still enjoyed most of it despite all that.
All that said, this rates more like 3.5 stars but we all know how Goodreads feels about half stars. And it wasn't enough to bump it up to 4 because of those points mentioned above. It is a perfect Spring Break or summer read though so I do recommend it for that.