Member Review

Ten Days in May by Tracey Richardson.

Thank you Netgallery and Bella Books for an ARC for an unbiased review.

The premise was fairly simple. Can two people who broke up under acrimonious circumstances, yet still yearned to be together even years later, when brought together, work through the differences, as friends, and possibly more?

The book felt strange, in so much as it was reasonably well written. There were no real surprises for me, it was all fairly predicable. The big issue I had, and one that ran throughout the book in one way or another was how self-analysis by both characters became problematic for me.

With Brooke, it was owning a restaurant was the biggest part of her life. What would she do? How would she reinvent herself?
This was said so often in different dynamics and ways, that I was tempted to just give up reading at one point.
I get it was something that heavily shaped Brooke's life, but to see it mentioned so frequently was just really annoying after a while. I can't do a search on the proof as I could in regular ebooks, but I can't help but wonder how often words or phrases like 'reinvent', or 'what would she do', were mentioned.

Cam, although not quite as much, had similar problems for me as the reader as to why she became a death doula (support companion) and the introspection she has as to what led her there.

I get that it shaped them as people, I understood why motivations were a primary factor on both their behaviour. What I didn't get is why it had to be mentioned as frequently as it was. It almost felt as if it was to somehow make up the word count. It was the biggest distraction of the whole book for me, and I couldn't enjoy it as I'd hoped. And that was a shame because the way the rest of the story shaped up, while no surprises, wasn't bad at all and enjoyable.

I've debated on how to score this, and personally there was enough to warrant 3/5 stars. A book that is okay but not something I'd necessarily read again.