Life Pushes You Along by Emma Sterner-RadleyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I need to make one quick point at the outset before moving on to a review: I’ve had some ‘issues’ with most of the works I’ve read recently, the last, oh, 12 or 20 books/short stories, so I might have been overly impressed with this book and therefore overrated it – though not purposefully, but maybe nudged that way subconsciously. Or – I do not believe I’ve overrated this book, but there is a possibility that I might have.
Right, book.
This book alternates between three characters, though starts off mostly seeing things through the eyes of a young 26 year old named Zoe Achidi. After getting tossed out of her home when she was 17, by her very religious (Catholic) parents for ‘choosing’ to be a lesbian and therefore choosing to spite them and automatically going to hell, Zoe showed greater ability than many in her situation by getting a job and an apartment. Unfortunately she then fell into a rut – 7 or so years after getting that job at an independent bookstore, she still has that same job. And relationship-wise, she’s not had a girlfriend in years.
Somewhat shocking me, after a long large number of chapters that followed Zoe’s thoughts, ideas, and actions, suddenly the book turned to a new point of view. No no, that wasn’t the shocking part – I’ve seen that type of thing before (long periods with one character before switching). No it was who the book switched to when it finally switched point of views. Most romance books, and this is a romance book, tends to stick to solo pov, or couple point of view (as in, the two people who will become a couple get a point of view – one of the reasons I really disliked a recent Tessa Dare book was because a man suddenly got control of the POV and I groaned, for then I knew that the asshole was going to be the man in that book) – with, depending on genre, occasional snippets from others (like if mystery can have snippets from murderer/murder victim, etc.; or romantic suspense could have POV from the ‘evil fucker’). So when this book next turned to Helen to take control of the POV I was, as noted, shocked. For Helen, you see, had previously been introduced as Zoe’s best friend and Zoe’s brother’s long-term girlfriend. And nothing leading up to the POV change indicated any chance that Helen might be romantically interested in Zoe. So, as noted, shocked I was.
Of course Helen, which was rapidly confirmed, hadn’t taken over POV because she was romantically interested in Zoe. Helen took over because there were some scenes that needed to be seen that would be easier to be seen through either Helen or Jamie’s point of view (Jamie being Zoe’s brother). Why them? Because, as noted, Zoe has been in a long term rut, and the brother and best friend were determined to try to push her out of that rut. By personally introducing themselves to a stranger and asking for help from her – doing so to judge that strangers interest in Zoe. Unmentioned yet is the part wherein the stranger has already been seen by the reader in the book. As a reoccurring patron of the book store that Zoe works in – and the same patron who is lusted over by both Zoe and Darren (Zoe’s boss). That patron being Rebecca Clare.
Right, so, as far as Zoe, Jamie, and Helen know – Rebecca has something to do with recruitment (based on email address and other hints) so that was Helen and Jamie’s ‘in’ to visit Rebecca. By asking her if Rebecca could help Zoe find a better job.
Interesting dynamic in this book. Zoe and Rebecca seem, both on the surface and internally, like they’d make a quite good couple. Perfect? Eh, maybe maybe not. But possibly quite good. But neither would have gotten there without the help of this outside party – for Zoe has the self-confidence of a timid mouse, and Rebecca has the social skills of a . . . um . . cantaloupe. So neither could really tell the other was interested in them romantically.
So, right, sorry, Rebecca Clare is the third point of view in the book. She’s 40 and works in upper management at a recruitment firm, though not specifically directly with recruitment. *taps fingers* hmm, I’ve got nothing to add to this paragraph.
Going back to Jaime and Helen’s first visit with Rebecca – they did it by going directly to Rebecca’s work and asking to speak to Rebecca, dropping Zoe’s name as reference. I mention this, and go back to it, because this is the first time that I learned that: 1) Jaime is black; 2) presumably, as Jaime’s sister, Zoe is also black; 3) later Zoe’s skin color was confirmed. It came up here because Jaime was quite self-conscious about being in such a fancy place dressed like he was and being black (only to have Helen point out that one of the receptionists was also black).
So I only learned deep into the book that I was reading a person of color book. Oh, I later learned that the parents are: mother from Scotland, father from Cameroon (or the other way around). Presumably the parent from Scotland is white, while the one from Cameroon is black. Though that reminds me of when Charlize Theron won that Oscar in 2003 and an announcer loudly stated that she was an African American being that she is from South Africa – overlooking the part wherein she wasn’t American (though she’s a citizen of the USA now, since 2007). Point being that the parent from Cameroon could be among the 1% of the population who is ‘non-African’ (as that is worded on Wikipedia). Though being Catholic corresponds to the 40% of the population that is Catholic.
The demographics chart on Wikipedia is weird, but I think it is telling me that something around 0.7% of Scotland is black – so maybe the parent from Scotland is as well. Religious wise, 19% of the population is Catholic – which is a statistic that I had not known.
I got distracted by demographics and confused as to where I wished to go next. Mmphs.
Right, so, very enjoyable book – I rather liked the characters in this book, and while the book ended the way it did, I was satisfied with the somewhat casual ending (though not the part where it ended at something like 71% of the Kindle file; or before learning if (view spoiler)).
Sex: I, um . . . . quite frankly cannot recall if there was graphic sex in this book or not. I suspect that there wasn’t, though I know that sex occurred, just . . . not graphically.
Rating: 4.79
December 28 2017
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