A review by bibliobethreads
This Is How It Ends by Kathleen MacMahon

3.0

This is the story of two people, Addie and Bruno, who are both a bit older, single and disappointed by their current lives. Bruno is American but decides to track the story of his Irish ancestors by descending on them completely by surprise as a way to try and escape the U.S. Election. He swears that if Obama doesn’t win, he will refuse to return to America, and throughout the novel, he constantly worries about this situation. Addie on the other hand, has had a couple of failed relationships and is currently looking after her father, a surgeon with a lot of attitude who has currently broken both his wrists and is about to undergo a lawsuit for malpractice. Addie ends up meeting Bruno as his second cousin once removed, and they fall in love.

I did enjoy this story, and found it quite refreshing that it explored love in a couple outside of their twenties and thirties. The characters were intriguing, but I found this was also a problem with the novel as I didn’t feel they were explored to their full potential. I was eager to know more about Addie and Bruno’s back story and their previous relationships, which was merely touched upon. I won’t say too much about the ending, but to be honest, it was fairly obvious to me and I did expect it. Don’t get me wrong, this is an interesting and decent story, but I feel more could have been made of what was there.

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