Reviewer: Andrea
I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
The summary:
Rick and Abby grew up together, became best friends, and ultimately fell in love. Circumstance tore them apart in their early teens, though, and they went on to lives less idyllic than they dreamed about in those early days. Rick has had a very successful career, but his marriage flat-lined. Abby has a magical daughter, Paige, but Paige’s father nearly destroyed Abby’s spirit.
Now fate has thrown Rick and Abby together again. In their early thirties, they are more world-weary than they were as kids. But their relationship still shimmers, and they’re hungry to make up for lost time. However, Paige, now nine, is not nearly as enthusiastic. She’s very protective of the life she’s made with her mother and not open to the duo becoming a trio. Meanwhile, Rick has very little experience dealing with kids and doesn’t know how to handle Paige. This leaves Abby caught between the two people who matter the most to her. What happens when the life you’ve dreamed of remains just inches from your grasp?
PRESSED PENNIES is a nuanced, intensely romantic, deeply heartfelt story of love it its many incarnations, relationships in their many guises, and family in its many meanings. It is the most accomplished and moving novel yet from a truly great storyteller of the heart.
The review:
Nostalgic versus exciting. Can a novel be both? By its very definition, nostalgia involves a feeling related to the past. Because an event happened in the past, does that mean it has lost its pizzazz, the spark that made the thing worth retelling in the first place? Of course not! That’s ridiculous, and yet with this novel, I felt I had to choose between excitement and nostalgia. It was very flat for me and lacked any real conflict. At times, it had that great Wonder Years feel, but without the tension, it was slow and just kind of blah.
Rick and Abby seemed overly sweet and spent the whole novel telling each other how beautiful and amazing they are. Paige provided what little conflict there was in the form of bratty angst. I was beyond frustrated with Abby’s pacifying of her eight-year-old and giving her expensive parties and shopping trips. It lacked realism. Not only did Paige need more by way of discipline than a few harsh looks, but their whole lifestyle seemed unrealistic. Abby is a single mother with what amounts to a drunken ex-husband, and when she moves, she has no job, but she buys a ton of camping equipment, rents Paige and her friends a limo, and takes her daughter to the mall. I have close friends and relatives who’ve experienced divorce, and while I may not have been a participant, I most definitely had ring-side seats. I didn’t feel the gritty pain of a new divorcee as I should have.
The pacing felt strange, too. The author has some really beautiful writing, but the setting descriptions went long. It seemed to take longer to describe the scenery sometimes than to relay the dialogue occurring there. A description of a city street at Christmas was paragraphs long, but we skip to spring in one sentence. Events that seemed ripe for tension (like Paige being hit by a drunk driver) were flat with a Brady Bunch, everything-works-out-in-thirty-minutes feel.
