This story is definitely going on my top 5 favourite books for this year.
It's gripping, holds your attention with every page turned, it's heartbreaking and most of all, it's a love story and shows that a marriage can overcome everything in its way if the love it's strong enough.
Being a young woman and getting pregnant, marrying a man that your parents don't approve, trying with everything you have in your power to make that marriage work, will make you give up at some of your dreams but when everything settles you can still archive one of them. Olivia's 40th birthday party is like the wedding day she dreamed but never had the chance to get.
The story's compelling, it's based more on what happens in 24 h, Liv party day, with a few flashback moments from the past for both Adam and Olivia, with their relationship, kids and jobs. As a mother, you'll always try to protect and keep your daughter secrets no matter how hard it's to keep them from your husband and best friend. As a father, Adam goes through a difficult time trying to figure out how to balance the short-lived happiness of his wife for her birthday as he's hiding a secret that eats him up and can destroy them.
The author has a great gift in showing the emotions and how everything unveils making this story very reliable and daring us to think for a moment what would you do faced with a similar situation.

The Dilemma was such a great read, I was unsure when I first started this book on how it was going to turn out but the more I read, the addicted I became!

Oh I LOVED this book but it was very traumatic!

It’s Livia’s 40th birthday party, a day she has planned for and obsessed over for years. But something she knows has thrown a dark cloud over things. Husband Adam is determined that Livia will have her dream day..But he has a secret of his own…

What an emotional rollercoaster of a read this was- jumping between Adam and Livia as things unfold you often want to clap your hands over your eyes in dismay for them as each reveals the thing they are hiding, to the reader but not to each other. The author manages the emotion of it pitch perfectly, her eye for quietly compelling characters is second to none and it’s utterly riveting and hugely thought provoking.

It’s an emotionally relevant human question- when do you give news that may tear your family apart, how long can you let your loved one remain happily oblivious- I honestly don’t know what I would do in either Adam or Livia’s situation. You spend the entire read waiting for those bombs to drop and when they do it is hugely heart breaking.

This is a love story. That’s what I think. Beautifully written and plotted to give full impact, The Dilemma will have you thinking about it for a long time after it’s done.

Excellent. Highly Recommended. But you may want to keep a box of tissues and some chocolate handy…