Book Review: A Week of Warm Weather by Lee Bukowski

About the Book

Tessa Cordelia appears to have it all—a loving husband who’s just opened a dental practice, a beautiful baby girl, a big house in the suburbs, and a large, supportive family. But when her husband’s reckless choices resurrect a trauma from her childhood, she must decide which is more costly: keeping his secrets or revealing them. He manipulates Tessa into believing his career and their happiness depend on her silence. She feels like she’s losing her mind. Is her husband’s habit so awful? In many ways, he’s an ideal husband; should she let him have this one thing? Determined to maintain the lie that she’s living the perfect life, Tess lies to everyone she knows—except for CeCe, a woman new to the area whom she’s just befriended. But after confiding in her, Tessa learns that CeCe has an explosive secret of her own, and her world is further upended.

A gripping, nuanced exploration of the havoc addiction can wreak on a family, A Week of Warm Weather is the story of a woman who has to figure out how much she is willing to lose in order to find herself.

My Review

Talk about a book I could not put down. A Week of Warm Weather had it all – relatable characters, an emotional undercurrent, and an intimate look at a marriage falling apart from addiction. I enjoyed that this was not predictable – from the addiction itself, the middle-class family, even the length of the novel kept me on my toes. We move through multiple years and watch the slow demise of Tessa’s marriage and what really happens to someone has struggled with abandonment issues. There were scenes that had my heart pounding, scenes that I shed tears over, and the ending – wow. I appreciate books that don’t have a classic happily ever after wrap up, because sometimes in life that’s just where we are – we haven’t experienced that happy ending yet. This was a story that I ached to know more about the characters after I closed the final page. I think so many readers could benefit from grabbing this one, and it’s one I highly recommend.

5 stars