Another Mother's Life

I'm a creature of habit. If I find something I like, well I tend to stick with it. Granola bars, for instance. I have one everyday for breakfast. I am a granola and coffee girl.

It's the same with books. If I find an author I like, then I pretty much stock up on all things published by said author and read, read, read. For instance, Jodi Piccoult. I have every book she's written - all 15 of them and cannot wait for the new one coming in March! (On a side note, many people think that "My Sister's Keeper" is her best novel. And, I loved it, I did. I read it twice. However, "Songs of the Humpback Whale" and "Plain Truth" are both bloody brilliant.) I also absolutely adore Sarah Dessen (even though I am no longer a young adult) and Joyce Carol Oates (and boy is she prolific! I have invested a pretty penny in her work.)

So, anyway, after thoroughly enjoying Rowan Coleman's "The Accidental Mother", I hurried over to B&N to gobble her up...well, her work I mean. The sequel, "The Accidental Family", is supposed to be out this month but B&N doesn't have it. I think it's out in the UK but not here. Bloody hell!

Good thing they had another Rowan book: "Another Mother's Life."

So, I sat down, opened it up, gave it a good smell and it was something like:

- sleeping with the enemy
- telling someone how you feel and then holding your breath
- inviting a friend for coffee in order to say sorry and waiting at the table with butterflies wondering if she'll show up
- sitting in the front seat of a Delorean (equipped with a flux capacitor of course) and jetting off into the past...
- where you are promptly dropped onto a roller coaster that veers dangerously back and forth between the elementary school playground, junior high, high school and adulthood....complete with brief, gut-dropping, head-jerking glimpses of the carelessness, jealous tirades, emotional meltdowns, heart pounding affections, brief love affairs, past-their-due-date love affairs, betrayals, broken hearts, mended hearts, commitments, secret crushes, public embarrassments, forever friendships, fleeting friendships, lovers, enemies and pure chaos that defined coming of age.
- realizing that even in adulthood all those things above still exist, still hurt as much, still mean as much
- mending a broken heart
- mending a broken friendship
- remembering the minute you fell in love for the first time
- seeing the boy you fell head over heels for fall madly in love with someone else
- waiting by the phone
- hiding under the covers
- packing your car full of whatever possessions you can fit and driving away from the life you thought you couldn't live without
- watching the sunrise as you drive to your future realizing you can live without that life and actually looking forward to what you can do
- basking in the the power of friendship which is probably the fuel that drove that car where it needed to go

"Another Mother's Life" is the story of two friends, betrayal, love, marriage, family, forgiveness. If you've ever looked at another mother and wished you had her life or wondered what your life would be had you chosen a different path, then you might want to pick it up, give it a good smell and see how it makes you feel.