A little chick lit is good for the soul. Or so I thought. When I cracked open Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice’s The Night That Changed Everything*, I’ve gotta admit, I was expecting an easy and light-hearted read with a few chuckles and warm and fuzzies. Which I got but it was so much more than that.
Turns out it’s really easy to judge a book by its cover these days. And its blurb:
Rebecca is the only girl she knows who didn’t cry at the end of Titanic. Ben is the only man he knows who did. Rebecca’s untidy but Ben doesn’t mind picking up her pieces. Ben is laid back by Rebecca keeps him on his toes. They’re a perfect match.
Nothing can come between them. Or so they think.
When a throwaway comment reveals a secret from the past, their love story is rewritten.
Can they recover from the night that changed everything? And how do you forgive when you can’t forget?
I have a habit of becoming emotionally invested really quickly. It normally happens with TV shows or series of books but last week it happened with a single novel. By the time I got to work on Monday I was totally engrossed in The Night That Changed Everything and had reached ‘that night’. I don’t want to spoil anything, even though it’s revealed only about 50 pages in, so I’ll just say that I spent several chapters chopping and changing who I sided with. When it comes to relationships, you’ve always gotta pick a side and as the story is told from Rebecca and Ben’s POV in alternate chapters, there are constantly new reveals which make you change your mind.
What I found most engaging, however, as is so often the case, was the supporting characters. Their mutual friend Jamie, Rebecca’s co-worker Jemma and Ben’s friend Russ provided most of the comic relief and also, surprisingly, most of the heart. The tears that filled my eyes on the bus (more than once!) weren’t due to the breakdown of the central relationship but the knock-on effect it had on their friendship circle. It’s so easy to lose yourself in a relationship and forget about everyone else’s problems and Jamie was a great reminder of that.
I was intrigued by the co-authorship as I had previously read Lobsters, written by Lucy Ivison and Tom Ellen, and liked the dual perspective. With The Night That Changed Everything, Tait and Rice wrote in a way which really made me feel like I understood the inner workings of Rebecca and Ben’s minds and they worked really well together.I haven’t read their first novel, The Best Thing That Never Happened To Me, but I’ve added it to my wish list.
The Night That Changed Everything is released on Thursday – you can pre-order it now.
For more of what I’ve been reading and what’s on my wish list, follow me on Good Reads.
* I received a review copy of this publication but all opinions are my own
I love this idea of two authors and the dual perspective of a man and a woman. I might give this a go :o)
I liked the supporting characters too – I felt like the friendship circle and dynamics really added something to the story. I haven’t seen that first book, so that’s definitely on my list too!