Review: The Way We Weren't by Phoebe Fox

An unlikely friendship between a septuagenarian and a younger woman becomes a story of broken trust, lost love, and the unexpected blooming of hope against the longest odds.

You trying to kill yourself, or are you just stupid?

Marcie Malone didn't think she was either, but when she drives from Georgia to the southwestern shore of Florida without a plan and wakes up in a stranger's home, she doesn't seem to know anymore. Despondent and heartbroken over an unexpected loss and the man she thought she could count on, Marcie leaves him behind, along with her job and her whole life, and finds she has nowhere to go.

Herman Flint has seen just about everything in his seventy years living in a fading, blue-collar Florida town, but the body collapsed on the beach outside his window is something new. The woman is clearly in some kind of trouble and Flint wants no part of it--he's learned to live on his own just fine, without the hassle of worrying about others. But against his better judgment he takes Marcie in and lets her stay until she's on her feet on the condition she keeps out of his way.

As the unlikely pair slowly copes with the damages life has wrought, Marcie and Flint have to decide whether to face up to the past they're each running from, and find a way to move forward with the people they care about most.

 

My Review:

An incredible story about letting go and starting over.

Have you ever thought about moving away and starting your life over where no one knows you?  That’s what Marcie, in this book, does after she has a miscarriage.  She started questioning her life and marriage to husband, Will.  One day she was on her way to work and she decided to just keep on driving.  Her drive took her from Georgia all the way to Palmetto Key, Florida, where she finally stopped. 

Flint, a long-time resident of Palmetto Key, was a cranky old man who seemed to be annoyed by everything in life.  But when he found a woman asleep on the beach, he couldn’t just leave her there.  He had to help her.  He took her back to his house until she felt well enough to leave.  But Marcie didn’t leave.  She stayed, and she and Flint became friends.  It was an unusual friendship, but it turned out to be a good friendship.  In the end, they were able to help heal a loss in each of their lives that no one else could.

This story is full of hope and inspiration, set on a tropical island with fun and quirky characters.  I just wish the book was longer as I wasn’t ready to let go of these characters so soon.  

 

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

 

Phoebe Fox is the author of the Breakup Doctor series (The Breakup Doctor, Bedside Manners, Heart Conditions, Out of Practice) and has been a contributor or regular columnist for a number of national, regional, and local publications, including the Huffington Post, Elite Daily, and SheKnows. A former actor on stage and screen, Phoebe has been dangled from wires as a mall fairy; was accidentally concussed by a blank gun; and hosted a short-lived game show. She has been a relationship columnist; a movie, theater, and book reviewer; and a radio personality, and currently lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two excellent dogs.