Stand by Me

by Sheila O'Flanagan

[Leah]

When Dominique Delahaye marries Brendan Delahaye at the tender age of 19 whilst pregnant everyone says that it’s only a shot-gun wedding and it won’t last. Twenty years later and Brendan and Dominique are still going strong, along with daughter Kelly. They’re the hottest couple in Cork, appearing in the magazines and newspapers frequently, as Brendan’s building business hits fantastic and dizzy new heights and as Dominique frequents charity functions and becomes known as ‘Dazzling Domino’. Everything comes crashing down, though, the day that Brendan disappears without a trace, leaving Dominique and Kelly in the mire. Dominique moves up to Dublin and manages to get herself a job and a new life but finds herself unable to stop thinking and wondering about Brendan. But when Brendan returns, will Dominique be able to stand by her man?

I’m a really huge fan of Sheila O’Flanagan and have enjoyed the majority of her books that I’ve read – there’s only one or two I haven’t read of hers, in actual fact and she’s become an author whose books I really look forward to. I really enjoyed her last release The Perfect Man and as soon as I spotted her new book Stand By Me on Amazon I couldn’t wait to read it. It sounded just as great as her other books and when I received a proof copy to review I couldn’t wait to get stuck in to see if it was as good as Sheila’s other books. Thankfully, it was!

The official synopsis for Stand By Me makes mention of Dominique’s husband Brendan disappearing. However, that doesn’t actually happen until well into the book – so far into the book that I was actually quite surprised when it eventually happened. The book is more about Dominique and Brendan’s story as a couple. The book begins with a Prologue set at some point in the future, before taking us all the way back to 19-year-old Dominique when she first meets Brendan. Things move quickly between the pair and Dominique falls pregnant and then we follow their story as they marry, as Dominique has her daughter Kelly, and the years pass slowly but surely until we reach the present day. It was a surprising way for the story to be told – after all, I was expecting to jump right into the present day and for Brendan to disappear but it’s not like that at all. Sheila builds the story from the beginning and tells it as it’s meant to be told. Thinking about it, building up the story like that really worked as far as I’m concerned. Instead of just throwing us into the deep end without getting to know the characters, Sheila took us right to how it all began so we could learn the history of the characters and have an affinity with them.

As well as focusing on Dominique and Brendan’s marriage and everything that happens up until the point when he disappears, we also see into the lives of those closest to Dominique and Brendan. We have the Brady’s, Dominique’s parents and brother, who are a bit obsessed with religion and have a few issues it has to be said and then we have the Delahaye’s, Brendan’s side of the family. It’s a big ensemble cast and although Dominique, Brendan and Kelly are the main focus there are a lot of wider issues dealt with in the book with wider members of the family. There’s the marriage of Greg and Emma, Brendan’s brother and Dominique’s friend. Emma is married to Greg, as mentioned but while in her teens hankered after Gabriel, Dominique’s brother, and there was a lot of tension there. Then, of course, there’s the fallout from Brendan’s disappearance for everyone to deal with and things do get a bit hard for both sides of the family.

For the most part, I liked Dominique. She had grown up in a religion-dominated family and was eager to break free and become her own person. Then she met Brendan, fell pregnant and got married. After the birth of her child, Kelly, she suffered from post-natal depression and O’Flanagan wrote those scenes beautifully as the depression took a hold of Dominique and it took her a while to fully get over it. However despite my sympathy for her, I was a bit annoyed at how much she relied on Brendan. She strove to be independent from her family and then she went and become needy with regards to Brendan. She did, however, come into her own once Brendan disappeared and she began to re-build her life. I wasn’t really a fan of Brendan. He seemed OK early on but when he abandoned his family, that was that as far as I was concerned. I loved Kelly, though, especially as we got to know her better as she got older. The rest of the Delahaye/Brady family all seemed OK. Some had their issues and there were a few plot twists concerning a few members of each family but the main crux of the book was about Dominique, Brendan and Kelly. One of the stand-out characters from the Delahaye family was Greg, he and Dominique had a close relationship and I liked how he helped her through a difficult time.

Sheila O’Flanagan really excells at telling stories and I just got lost in the book while I was reading it. From beginning to end, I was fully interested in the story and the characters and that never diminished. My only problem, really, was the way everyone stood by Brendan after he returned. That really bugged me, because he didn’t deserve it. I also think there should have been an epilogue to round everything off. Just to see how everyone had moved on, and to see who had managed to stay together and how their lives had been generally after everything that had happened. Apart from that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it’s the perfect read to curl up with as Autumn and Winter close in.