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Locked In

Anna Chastain

20th June 2017

 

“My name is Grace Donovan and my whole world is about to change.”
Grace and Ben have been together since they were teenagers.
They are in love, with each other, and their two children.
They’ve spent their entire adult life together, happy in the small southern California beach town they call home; until one day Ben comes home and tells Grace he’s leaving.
Now Grace is left wondering what happened to her life, to her home, and when exactly did things start to go so wrong. To find out, she turns to the place she didn’t even realize she was missing, the place she grew up, and the place she still considers home. With the help of her family and friends and the ocean, Grace begins to rebuild her life and remind herself where it is she truly wants to be…and, whether or not that life includes her husband. Locked In is a story about love and forgiveness, about riding the waves of life, and it is about how we continually reshape ourselves but never really feel grown up.

 

 

This has a lot of highs and lows. This also isn’t my usual type of read. I love to read how the couple meets, how they go through trials and tribulations. How they then ride into the sunset. Yeah in a perfect world that would be the case. In the real world? Not so much.

 

Color me surprised that I was sucked into Grace’s life.

 

There are just some words you never want to hear in a relationship and they are “I met someone – “. Yes, we meet new people every day but we don’t stand in the kitchen with a duffel bag and pull the rug out. And so, here the rollercoaster ride begins. For the characters and for me as a reader.

 

Ben made me so mad. The audacity of Ben implying…you rat bastard. He doesn’t deserve happiness. Did I feel as if he really worked for it? No. His reasons for doing what he did where had to fathom because it could have been handled differently.

 

The humiliation that Grace felt. The betrayal. Knowing the “other woman” hearing the news from her and not your husband.

I was on the fence I wanted Grace and Ben to work things out. I also wanted Grace to get it on with Finn. I am more team Grace than anything else. But admittedly she isn’t perfect and there were things that she needed to work on.

 

A month of marriage counselling is the first step in finding their way back to one another. If you want a read where love conquers truly does all after marrying then this book is for you. I can really see how difficult it was to write as the author has written. Where forgiveness and moving forward as a couple is centre stage here. It is so easy with everything that happens in day to day life to just drift away from one another.

 

The one thing I had a problem with was Grace staying at home. I find it admirable that Grace is a stay at home Mom. But she gave all and in the end nearly lost herself.

 

There is solid writing with great secondary characters. Bear is my favourite. The author has truly created something beautiful and heartfelt. I finished it in one day so that should imply how good it is.

 

I hope Dean and Holly get a book as well as Finn.

 

There is no cheating in the book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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