A Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller.
Honesty is the best policy…except maybe when it comes to marriage in this brilliant novel about the high price of perfection from bestselling author Camille Pagán.
Wife. Mother. Breadwinner. Penelope Ruiz-Kar is doing it all—and barely keeping it together. Meanwhile, her best friend, Jenny Sweet, appears to be sailing through life. As close as the two women are, Jenny’s passionate marriage, pristine house, and ultra-polite child stand in stark contrast to Penelope’s underemployed husband, Sanjay, their unruly brood, and the daily grind she calls a career.
Then a shocking tragedy reveals that Jenny’s life is far from perfect. Reeling, Penelope vows to stop keeping the peace and finally deal with the issues in her relationship. So she and Sanjay agree to a radical proposal: both will write a list of changes they want each other to make—then commit to complete and total honesty.
What seems like a smart idea quickly spirals out of control, revealing new rifts and even deeper secrets. As Penelope stares down the possible implosion of her marriage, she must ask herself: When it comes to love, is honesty really the best policy?
Title Says It All. A lot of times when I write these reviews, the book didn't really hit home or I've given myself some time to process before writing or a singular theme arose from my read of the book or some other thing that kind of "ties the review together". None of that really applies here. This book hit hard on many levels, and I'm writing this review within just a couple of minutes of finishing it.
Ultimately, the title really does say it all. I'm fine - and neither are you. We're all messy, none of us are perfect. But most all of us are trying to do the right thing as best we can, even when life tries to keep us down. Sometimes we handle things amazingly, sometimes we run away and have a meltdown over something that should have been simple. It happens.
This is a fictional tale with a lot of real life issues thrown into the story and handled in a very realistic manner, to the level that the book comes dang close to veering into self help categories. This was my first book from Pagan, and it won't be my last.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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11 March, 2019:
Finished reading
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11 March, 2019:
Reviewed