À Bientôt (All For Love Book 1)
- Patricia Dixon
- Jun 20, 2016
- 2 min read
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, a tender and touching story of betrayal, loss and new love.
Anna, our lead character, is attending the funeral of her husband who had tragically died in a crash. She is calm, not tearful or grieving, instead she is watchful of the congregation. Which one could have been having an affair with her husband? The story delves into the lives of Anna, her children and briefly dips in and out of Matthew's affair. The book is set mainly in Portsmouth, Anna's home, and St Pierre, France where Anna initially took a few days break in the rural countryside to think, relax and reassess her life. Her descriptions of the landscape and scenery, food and lifestyle of her new French friends is so realistic that you could almost feel yourself carried away to rural France. The friendships she makes there are deep, true and lasting, giving Anna cause to return to France again and again.
This isn't a chick-lit story of affairs, although who the 'other woman' was is always in the back of your mind, it's a beautifully crafted two year diary of Anna coping with loss, children who are at times difficult, and the guilt of finding someone she cares for after her husband's death. I'd noticed a reviewer on another site had said that the story was predictable and guessed who the 'other woman' was early in the book. I don't think the point of knowing who it was is the main element of the story, it's the suspense of the slow dawning and eventual revelation that gives strength to the story and also to Anna. I felt that there were almost two layers to the book depending on how fast you read it and the state of your mind. Fast and frivolous 'beach reading' gives a gratuitous light relationship story whereas a slower more thoughtful reading session gives a warm glow to the heart and an engrossing deep feeling for a woman's guilt at the lack of grief she's feeling after losing her husband and the urge to move her life on. All the characters are realistic and likeable, except the ones we're not supposed to like, and the story moves at a good pace without areas of boredom or over-description. Overall, I think that Patricia Dixon is a talented and competent writer who has put together a great debut novel and has much more to offer. This is the first in her 'All For Love' series and having read all of them, each can be read as stand alone books but this one gives a good, deep background to Anna and Daniel as a couple as well as Anna's children and Daniel's ex-wife and daughter.
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