Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas

love-and-other-natural-disasters

Eve is eight months pregnant and in the middle of a Thanksgiving celebration when she discovers that her husband Jonathan has developed an intimate relationship with a woman over the past year. Jonathon asserts his innocence (an affair involves physical intimacy, and he didn't have any), while Eve feels deeply betrayed by the emotional connection he shared with someone else. What Jon has done seems so terrifyingly out of character that Eve finds herself questioning her entire reality. Did she ever really know Jon at all? Was their happiness together a lie? Is emotional intimacy more forgivable than sexual intimacy? And can their marriage survive?



Eve and Jon seem to have it all, a wonderful son, Jacob with a baby due in a few months time. But, when Eve overhears Jon on the phone during Thanksgiving dinner her whole world crumbles. Laney happened. Eve makes everyone leave and confronts Jon, who admits to having an "emotional" relationship with Laney over the past year. He doesn't see this as cheating because it never once got physical, although he "has love" for her.

This book was very thought provoking. My husband and I discussed it, and I was with Eve's friend Lil. I thought that an emotional relationship was worse than a physical one, and it would be harder for me to forgive. I was happy with the ending and how the author brought you to it. She also left the possibility of a sequel - I for one would love to know more about what happens with Uncle Charlie.

This is the first book that I have read by this author, but I really enjoyed it. Once again I want to thank Miriam Parker of The Hachette Book Group for sending this to me for review.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed this book, and found it thought provoking, too. Good review!

LisaMay said...

Sounds very interesting! Great blog :)

http://lookatthatbook.blogspot.com/


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