ibeforem
Written on Jul 25, 2018
Anny is the center of the story. She’s not old money Charleston, but the leader of a non-profit who searches out the help of a doctor one day for one of her clients and meets Lewis, a successful surgeon 15 years her senior. He pulls her into his group of lifelong friends, the Scrubs, and soon they are all one happy family. Or so it seems.
The story crosses multiple decades and follows the Scrubs through the good times and bad — hurricanes, fire, death. It had the potential to be really emotional, but I felt like I never got a chance to know the characters before I was thrown into their lives and machinations. Lewis and Anny’s courtship is nearly non-existent. They meet and then bam! They’re married and life goes on. We’re told how deeply they love each other, but we’re robbed of the chance to see that love grow. And then there are the friends. Only a couple of them are really fleshed out characters, and not necessarily for the better. I even kept forgetting about one of the couples… whenever they’d be mentioned I’d think “Oh yeah, those guys”.
Unfortunately, practically all of the inciting events in this story are tragic. After a while, it felt like “geez, who else is going to die?” I appreciated the twist at the end, but I think it could have used a little more intrigue sprinkled throughout the story to keep us interested.