About the Book
Maggie Dolin is forty-five and isn’t dealing with getting older very well. Seventeen years ago, she gave up her job in publishing to raise her daughter, Gia—but now her only child is about to leave for college, and Maggie isn’t sure what her new purpose will be. She’s been the caretaker and nurturer for so long that she can’t even remember the last time someone took care of her. She wishes Jim, her husband of nineteen years, would take that role on—but he’s been distracted and disconnected, and she’s convinced he’s hiding something from her. Her self-involved, judgmental mother and resentful brother, meanwhile, are certainly no help, and her father—the only person in her life who’s always been there for her and asked nothing in return—is dealing with increasingly serious health issues, leaving Maggie without her rock.
As all these stressors pile on, a chance meeting with a younger man causes Maggie to act in a way that is completely out of character for her. As she gets deeper in, she’s forced to make some big decisions about what she wants and deserves—decisions that could change her life forever.
After Happily Ever After deals with love, marriage, family, the empty nest, aging parents and what happens when they all come crashing down at the same time.
My Review
Maggie Dolin was one of the characters that I shook my head at while simultaneously rooting for her. It was easy for me to understand her perspective – lonely and feeling undervalued by both her husband and daughter, and floundering when it came to having an identity outside of wife and mother. It didn’t make me love her actions further along in the book, but I could I understand where she was coming from? Yeah, I could. Even though we also got Jim’s perspective, I struggled to root for him. Once again I could understand he was struggling internally and wanted to be a better husband, but he really didn’t seem to take any responsibility in his failing marriage and that frustrated me. I definitely stayed invested throughout the story, and while I had an idea of how the ending might be, I still enjoyed reading how the characters got there.
4 stars
