Book Review: Forever Hold Your Peace - Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

 

 

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, for which I thank them.

“Forever Hold Your Peace” is the latest in a set of books by authors Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke.

What I enjoyed:

The general plot - when your darling chid announces that s/he has found “the one,” I think a number of parents’ hearts break a bit knowing that your child is growing up and all that. The mothers dealing with their feelings about that I found an interesting topic to explore (and it also brought back flashbacks to my own family issues!).

The different perspectives - there aren’t many main characters in this book, but the authors managed to make them and the supporting characters unique enough to easily keep apart.

Italy - sigh. Fantastic beginning … I miss Italy!

A bookstore - always a thing I enjoy seeing, along with dropped references to other authors’ works. I wish a bit more time had been spent there, but realize that that might’ve distracted from the story.

What was meh:

The humor - sometimes it was kinda cute (the Dad jokes about a wedding favor!) but other times the attempted humor just fell flat for me.

William - his character was so under developed that I wasn’t quite sure why he was included.

Fiona - I liked Fiona a lot, but I wish that she’d been in the book a bit more. I feel like I knew more about her (a minor character) than I did William.

What wasn’t as good as I hoped:

I found a lot of this book to be incredibly sad - not bawling ones eyes out sad, but more depressing sad. One person hadn’t “moved on” for a number of years … and it seemed like one of the other characters hadn’t (really) either. I found some of the “let’s speak like today’s kids” parts rather cringy and awkward, including the texting bits (use emojis, no use of punctuation).

In summary - this book wasn’t quite what I was expecting. There’s a lot of drama, there’s a lot of misunderstanding and hurt feelings, there’s not a lot of forgiveness until, well, it becomes necessary for a good resolution. I do think this would make an excellent Hallmark movie - I’d greatly enjoy seeing the grand make-up scene visually (what a hoot!). I found some of the wedding planning stuff a bit tiresome and repetitive. I wish I’d liked this book more than I did - because I really wanted to! I’d give this duo another chance, so that’s another positive in their favor.

Overall rating: 3 stars