Review--Skylark by Ruthie Morgan

[khudecek]

Four stars--

I have to say that I liked this book A LOT! The reason I gave it four stars is because it had a tendency to drag at times. But it didn't seem to last all that long before something happened to pick up the pace again.

It is a love story between Billie, who is a writer and Evan, who is an artist/architect. Nothing was "normal" between these two from the very beginning. They had a very short, whirlwind courtship before they decided to get married and then she pretty much gave up everything she'd ever hoped for or dreamed of so she could go to Paris with him.

There were so many times that I was so angry with Evan for his selfishness and his misbehavior. He was out doing whatever he wanted with no sort of consequences or repercussions at home. Billie would make a really nice dinner and he just wouldn't come home. No phone calls. No apologies. Nothing like that because he was at the freaking bar! She would fall asleep waiting for him and then wake up wondering where he was, if he was okay and what blaming herself for not doing a better job at making him happy.

There was no making Evan Skylark happy. He was filled with angst and self-loathing with moments of being happy. I went from really despising him for being so irresponsible to despising her for letting him get away with it! But as the story unfolded, I realized that Evan was mentally ill and why she didn't force him to see a doctor was beyond me but then again, she was too busy being his doormat to really make a stand.

One thing that really did irritate me was he was the one that wanted to start a family. She didn't. She wanted to wait until they were better situated (he didn't have a job at the time) but once again, she was doing whatever he wanted to keep him happy. She gets pregnant with twins and after they're born, Evan sticks her with everything. It was his idea! I would have thought that he would have been on-board instead of working 14-16 hours a day, including his after work cocktails where he'd get suitably sauced before he would come home. That really irritated me.

What we had here was a case of someone who was mentally ill and an enabler who really did nothing to help him. She would just let him do whatever he wanted and the few times that she did say something, he buckled and she felt like a jerk and he would slip back into hating himself.

I'm not sure she ever really saw his condition for what it was. Love really is blind and there's no doubt that these two loved each other very much. She was the stronger one for sure and he got to a point where he pushed her away and that made her feel even worse.

The ending had me in tears. I could tell something like that was going to happen with Evan's infatuation with birds and flying. I was so hoping it had gone the other way.

Overall, it was a wonderful story that had me twisted with emotions. Anger, laughter, concern, more anger, and tears. It's a great book.