The Other Side of Starting Over by Mara Williams
But Bea didn’t plan on Simon, the gruff store manager with his own ambitions for the business. As they’re forced to work together, animosity gives way to grudging respect and ignites an unexpected spark. Before Bea can find her footing, everything is upended. First by River, a local boy who bears a striking resemblance to her late husband. Then by her estranged mother-in-law, who reveals devastating secrets that will test everything Bea believed about her marriage.
As Bea navigates grief, betrayal, and an unexpected connection with Simon, she finds that it may be possible to begin again, but only if she confronts the truth of her past.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC, which is out on November 3rd!
Beatrice has returned to her childhood home in the Sierra mountains of California with her teenage twins in tow after the sudden death of her husband. She needs to rebuild her life after loss and plans to take over the family antique store. But she didn't plan on Simon, the curt store manager her parents have handed the store over in the time they assumed their daughter would never come home to run the store. And she didn't expect to come across a teenager who has a striking resemblance to her late husband. And run-ins with her estranged mother-in-law.
This was my first book by Mara Williams. I have always heard such great things about her books and her writing, so I went in with high expectations. I liked a lot about this book, while there were other elements I struggled with.
To start off, all the positives!
- I loved that Bea is a somewhat older FMC at 38. She is a mother of teenagers, she has lost a husband, she is dealing with very adult problems. I liked that Bea felt like a complicated character with a lot of backstory.
- This borders on literary fiction, in a good way. In many ways, the romance was a subplot in this. This is a woman whose whole life has been cracked apart, and she learns that her husband had secrets that he kept from her.
- On the other hand, you could almost classify this as romantic suspense! There is a great deal of mystery in this. I really liked the tension of the secrets her husband was keeping and the lurking mother-in-law. The ending had some truly dramatic scenes that I did not expect but truly enjoyed! This plot tension helped build upon the tension that already existed between Bea's longstanding love with her late husband and her new love interest.
- LOVE that Bea's family business is antiques!! SO fun. I loved them brainstorming how to best display them at the festival and talking about the displays in the store.
- I loved the rich history we get about Bea's late husband. Bea and Jake had been together since teenagers and he was her only love. He had such a rich backstory, and I hated he dies before the book begins because he is so interesting to me. I particularly appreciated how he seems to have successfully broken generational trauma and was a great dad for the kids he and Bea had together.
On to things I struggled with a bit:
- The teenagers in this were all uniformly awful. I give them grace because they have been through traumas with their dad dying and having to move and switch schools. But they are so mean and unrelentingly unkind to their mom. I so clearly remember being so upset as a teenager because every depiction and connotation of teenagers was a negative one. I just would have liked to see some glimmers of humanity in them (beyond the twins seemingly to be attached to each other). I DID like that Bea acknowledges this: "They may be jerks right now, but I still love them to their bones and hold every kinder version of them in my hearts."
- If that wasn't enough, Bea's parents aren't super understanding either. Yes, they give her a home and a job, but they question her parenting, never supported her marriage, and put her in a tense situation at work with Simon. Bea talks a lot about feeling guilt for how they're having to help her but I wondered how exactly they were doing that emotionally speaking. It felt like no one was in Bea's corner!
- Sometimes the transitions in this felt uneven. A dramatic scene would end, and the next chapter would be like "That day at the harvest festival" and I would have no clue how much time had passed or how we made the jump. This only happened occasionally but it felt choppy when it did. I chalk this up to editing and not the author.
- I felt like I never really connected with the romance in this. It felt like it developed really fast and Bea is so suspicious of Simon's motivations and backstory that it made it difficult for me to believe she was genuinely interested in him. Also, so much of Bea's thoughts and energy are caught up in her late husband. Her character didn't really feel ready to move on emotionally to me.
Still, a beautiful story!! I will absolutely read more from this author.
Favorite quotes:
"He was all my love stories. The first time we fell in love, we did so in secret - after curfew, behind bleachers, in cramped back seats. The second time, we tried to outrun the odds of distance, and self-discovery. And the final time, we promised each other forever."
"Tragedy hasn't made me an entirely new person. I am still the woman who attended grad school while pregnant with twins, had a thirty-eight-hour labor and gave birth naturally to Miles only to have a C-section for Tess, and then finished my MBA six weeks later with both wounds barely healed and bloody nipples from Miles's poor latch."
"My body pulses with need; my head throbs with guilt at the mess I've made. I am untethered, rudderless. I can list all the reasons kissing him spells disaster."
"People think love is simple and static. But it evolves like our personalities. We are so many people in a lifetime."
Stars: 3.5
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