Book # 23

Promises to Keep

by Dean Hughes. 

I liked this book and I hated it. In his series, “Hearts of the children” there is a character named Diane who marries an abusive husband and then divorces him at the end of the series. So this book is about what happens to her after that. She raises her daughter alone for the next 18 years and is so-so okay. She dates but can't find the right guy. The story begins when her daughter is 15, and she meets this widower who wants a friend and likes her a lot, but can't see marrying anyone else and is having loads of trouble with his kids anyway. At the end of the book, Diane decides to move on with her life without him and to be successful and happy no matter what. And I am cheering, thinking YES! Finally, someone dared to write a book without that standard fairy tale ending.... boy and girl get together and live happily ever after. That standard tale that says “YOU CAN'T BE HAPPY UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE”. At times, my heart would agree, but my head usually butts in to tell me that that's a load of horse manure! There are about 40 widows in my ward and I know that they all miss their husbands (at least some of the time, haha) but they are living life without them. I wonder what the percentage of widows who remarry is? Anyway.....sigh..... of course in the very last chapter, the fellow shows up and tells her that he loves her and that he does want to remarry and that he wants to give their relationship a shot. And I am gagging with disappointment! We need a novel that says a woman without a man can be happy and live life. Because most of us widows, and divorcees too, will remain alone. We need encouragement that we can do it alone, that we can be happy and content, that we are not misfits. We don't need any more stories that make us yearn for the maybe-never-gonna-happen fairy tale. I guess I need to be the one to write it. 

Until next time ;o)