Review: Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

Title: Someone Else’s Love Story  

Author: Joshilyn Jackson  

Published: November 2013, William Morrow

Format: Paperback ARC, 300 pages 

Source: Publisher/She Reads 

At twenty-one, Shandi
Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful
three-year-old genius son Natty, and keeping the peace between her
eternally warring, long-divorced Catholic mother and Jewish father.
She’s got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a
stick-up in a gas station mini-mart and falling in love with a great
wall of a man named William Ashe, who willingly steps between the armed
robber and her son.

Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god Thor
has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he
believed it was destiny: It’s been one year to the day since a tragic
act of physics shattered his universe. But William doesn’t define
destiny the way other people do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in
science and numbers, destiny to him is about choice.

Now, he and
Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, in a funny,
charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and
truths, faith and forgiveness,; about a virgin birth, a sacrifice, and a
resurrection; about falling in love, and learning that things aren’t
always what they seem—or what we hope they will be. It’s a novel about
discovering what we want and ultimately finding what we need.

My thoughts: This is the second full-length book I’ve read by Joshilyn Jackson, having also read A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty and her short story (and prequel to this book) My Own Miraculous. She has such a way with words – she just pulls you into her stories and you don’t want them to end!!!

Someone Else’s Love Story pulls you in from the first line, starting with a bang and never really seems to let you go. Starting with a hold-up at a convenience store where things get so tense that you aren’t sure what’s going to happen, to the middle of the story where we really get to know the characters and what makes them the way they are, right up to the end where we are still finding out about the characters, I found myself completely immersed in the story. I didn’t want to put it down and had to know how it all came together. I loved how the more we got to know about Shandi, the more it seemed she was hiding something from us, and I even started to feel that way about William, too, in certain instances.

The characters in this book are quirky – there’s just no other word for it. But it’s this quirkiness that makes them so endearing. Shandi desperately wants to find her own love story and you can’t help rooting for her along the way. Even William is endearing in his own right. And then there’s Natty – what’s not to love about a unique little boy that just loves his own little world?

I think this is the type of book that begs rereading after everything finally is revealed. Would I have picked up on certain things along the way knowing how it all played out in the end? There were so many times when I was utterly shocked at what happened next in this book…I had no clue what was coming and would love to see if there were any hints to any of it.

Once again, I applaud the ladies over at She Reads – they have picked another stellar read for our monthly book pick! As I already mentioned, I was already familiar with Joshilyn Jackson but will certainly be reading all her earlier works sooner rather than later!

The November Book Club Selection from She Reads is Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

Head over to the She Reads website to read other reviews and related posts.