Solo Una Volta Nella Vita (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
Confession: I am guilty of choosing books based on cover images. This is one of those covers. Who could resist the look of vintage postcards, old stamps, faded handwriting, and a couple looking toward the horizon at sunset? Well, not me!Now that’s out of the way, on with the book itself. Timothy Lewis brings to the pages of Forever Friday hints of Nicholas Sparks and his love stories. Set in an era when marriage was a tradition not to be laughed at and when couples truly married “until death do us part,” Lewis has brought to life a couple whose love and romance fill the pages with sentimentality, reality, commitment, a reliance on trust in one another and God, and yes, romance.With a premise centering around a young man hurting from the sting of divorce, Lewis introduces us to Adam Colby, an estate sale business owner. Adam happens across a stash of old postcards on which a poem is written and from the postmarks the cards were sent every Friday for six decades. Determined to learn more about Gabe and Pearl Alexander, Adam searches for family members who might be able to tell him more.Lewis cleverly takes the reader back and forth from the present to Gabe and Pearl’s courtship and marriage and their six decades together. The beauty of their love is rolled out like a lush carpet in Gabe’s poems and his weekly commitment to send them on postcards to Pearl. This is proof that enduring love exists, and it thrives when two hearts set out to make it so.While Adam is searching, he is also hoping that one day he will love again. But his hurt is deep and the uncertainty of finding someone like the Alexanders did seems impossible.Where do the postcards take Adam? Who does he meet? Does the love that existed between the Alexanders change his own impression of what true love is?My Recommendation:If you are a fan of vintage romance and the proof of long-lasting love affairs, Forever Friday is a book you will want to explore. The Alexanders rely on God’s presence in their lives, but the book does not make this the focus of its story line. This is just a beautifully written, lyrical work of prose telling what turns out to be a one of the best love stories I’ve read in a very long time.Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from WaterBrookMultnomah's Blogging for Books program in exchange for a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own. Forever Friday is a romantic story that unfolds through a series of flashbacks. A man selling an estate finds himself captivated by the romance of a couple whose story he begins to piece together after coming across a photo album full of old postcards. The cards contain poems which were written by a man to his wife, every Friday, throughout the course of their marriage. The man finds himself intrigued by their story, and equally captivated by the woman who helps him piece it all together.All in all, it was a sweet story, rather predictable but enjoyable. There were a few plot twists that kept it from being too over-the-top "picture perfect", and I appreciated those little detours, but it was still too predictable for my taste. This book is classified as Christian fiction, but it's not particularly focused on faith or God in any way. Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book via the Amazon Vine program in return for posting my honest review on Amazon.
What do You think about Solo Una Volta Nella Vita (2013)?
This book was set it Houston and Galveston so it was fun to read about places that I knew.
—Raja
It kept my attention, but the theology is questionable.
—kim
