Reviewer: Samantha
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
What choices would you make if you knew you may die soon?
From the multi award-winning, best-selling author of four books, including Here, Home, Hope, a gripping and heart wrenching novel about a young mother who has it all. The only problem is she may be dying.
In her previous works including All the Difference, Rouda’s characters “sparkle with humor and heart,” and the stories are “told with honest insight and humor” (Booklist). “Inspirational and engaging” (ForeWord), these are the novels you’ll turn to for strong female characters and an “engaging read” (Kirkus).
In the Mirror is the story of Jennifer Benson, a woman who seems to have it all. Diagnosed with cancer, she enters an experimental treatment facility to tackle her disease the same way she tackled her life – head on. But while she’s busy fighting for a cure, running her business, planning a party, staying connected with her kids, and trying to keep her sanity, she ignores her own intuition and warnings from others and reignites an old relationship best left behind.
If you knew you might die, what choices would you make? How would it affect your marriage? How would you live each day? And how would you say no to the one who got away?
Review:
When I first read this synopsis, I got a little leery of the book. I thought it was going to be a total downer, a book that I sobbed the whole way through, and that’s not always fun. I am happy to report though that the story really wasn’t like that. Sure we’re following a terminally ill woman, but the book’s intention isn’t to make you sad and wail like a baby, it’s to make you think. Think about the choices you have made in your life, think if you would make of some of the decisions differently based on circumstances, and make you think what would you do if you knew you were going to die. It’s quite an interesting concept for a novel, and In the Mirror was also a pretty quick read; I finished it in a day. I’m honestly not sure if I wanted more scenes, but I had a bit of trouble connecting to the story and getting emotionally involved in it, which I thought would be easy to do given the situation Jennifer is in. Instead of feeling like I was a part of the story I felt like I was just floating above the words, reading as she went along her journey. I still enjoyed the book and I hope you can read it simply to get your wheels turning, but I’m a little bummed I didn’t click with it like I usually can with Rouda’s work.
