Restless in LA

Robin
Finn
Genre: 
Contemporary

WOMEN'S FICTION:  Alexandra Hoffman has almost everything: a loving husband, a beautiful house, and three children. Amidst the cacophony of married life she writes an anonymous blog and sends a Facebook friend request to ex-boyfriend Matt Danniels, the man who made her feel complete. Thus begins a story of the past meeting the present and the consequences when one decides to take the path labelled, “what if?” 

Ms. Finn does not apologize for her female character’s choices as they bring her to the brink of what could be both her destruction and her path to freedom. Alexandra’s internal conflict spills nicely into her external conflict such that the reader cannot help but feel a whole range of emotions towards her: from disdain, dismay or sympathy for what she must do. One cannot help but feel anger for what Matt has done, and yet his character is what forces Alexandra to move out of her comfort zone. This is a morality tale. It is a story of a life well lived and yet not completely being fulfilled at the same time, and in the centre of it all is a story of searching for oneself. 

In a sea of novels that feature nubile women and muscular men in their 20s and early 30s, this book crests the wave of the romance genre by showing more mature couples falling in love and the consequences of decisions made. The author’s chosen plotline can be uncomfortable reading; yet it is exactly this moving out of one’s comfort zone that makes this a novel totally worth reading.

M.P. Ceja