Best Day Ever
- Kaira Rouda
- Jul 24, 2017
- 2 min read
This is quite a slow burner of a book, so much so that I felt I didn't want to carry on with it when I was about 25 – 30% of the way through – but I'm so glad I did.
The scene is being set during the first three quarters of the book – yes, that's a lot of scene setting but it is worth the wait to get a very satisfying ending. Paul is a narcissistic psycho with an ego the size of Greenland. He is a big 'I am' and I quickly came to dislike him. He brags about what a lovely little wifey he has got and what beautiful little boys he has, when in fact, his children are scared of him and his wife has no life because he's such a control freak and has isolated her from all her friends and family. The major part of the book is a car ride from their marital home to their lakeside second home where he is planning 'the best day ever' for his lovely wife, Mia. Paul reflects over parts of his life during that car ride giving the reader an insight into his childhood and relationships with family and past girlfriends. There are lots of little hints in the narrative, such as – “I never did get the blood stain off the band” (watch band) to tease us into thinking he did something really bad in the past.
The final quarter or so of the book becomes tense and fast paced. Things start to unravel so we see the true Paul and the strong Mia emerge. I felt a bit disappointed with the ending as far as Paul is concerned (I wanted nasty things to happen to him,) but after reading the author's notes at the back of the book, there's a hint of the possibility of a second book with Paul's character.
http://www.kairarouda.com/