This Fine Life – Review

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This Fine Life is one of the more frustrating books I’ve read in a long time. First, because I wanted to abandon my other responsibilities in order to sit and read. Putting this book down became harder every time I picked it up.

Second, Eva Marie Everson tells the story of Mariette and Thayne Scott with such rich detail that the 1960s returned to life in my mind, causing a number of distracting flashbacks. Images of my own childhood kept popping up, from the way my mother ran our house to that day in 1963 when the world came to a halt as people grieved in unison.

Yes, Revell sent me the book in exchange for this review, but Eva Marie is a master storyteller, and I own all her books, dating back to her first novel from Barbour. Be assured I would have bought and reviewed it anyway.

So why did This Fine Life capture me so? Let’s start with the tale itself. Mariette is typical of many young women who came of age in the late 1950s. The world sat before them with an overwhelming banquet of choices. College and careers previously not open to women awaited. Marriage, always a great option at any time, no longer formed the boundaries of our world.

So when Mariette chooses marriage to local “bad boy trying to make good” Thayne Scott over college and a respectable lifestyle, she comes into conflict with her family and most of her community. Those conflicts soon merge with the normal struggles of newlywed life, but Mariette eventually finds herself settling into her “new normal” and looking again toward an idyllic future.

Then real life hits hard – and Thayne drops a bombshell that will change all their lives forever.

This Fine Life is a riveting story that drags the reader into an unforgettable journey filled with twists and turns as unexpected as those life sometimes throws all of us. Heartache blends with laughter; joy is laced with bittersweet moments. The reader will hang on for the ride not just because of the engaging story but the lush characters who make you laugh with them and weep for them.

Pick up a copy . . . and relish every word.

This Fine Life
Revell, $14.99
978-0-8007-3274-5

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