Talia's Reviews > To Have and to Hold

Alice has married her high school crush and lives a life of luxury. She no longer works, gets her hair colored every 6 weeks, lunches with high society, and wears the latest fashions. One small problem: she isn’t herself. Also, her husband, Joe, is a womanizing cad, cheating on Alice every chance he can. When an affair with a co-worker goes awry, Alice and Joe move to the U.S., where Alice buys a cottage in the country. She begins to find herself through a love of gardening, and when her best friend and her boyfriend come to visit, she sees what a real relationship should be. When Joe starts to stray again, Alice wonders if she will ever find true happiness with her life.

Ugh. Alice is a complete pushover and it’s almost enraging how her husband treats her throughout the book. The storyline itself is inane, and the dialogue is even worse, with unnatural sentences and phrases being used. The author is English, but half the book takes place in America, and I found myself thinking multiple times, “No American would say that.” Unlike other genre books by Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot, this story just made me depressed and hate men. I read chick-lit to give me an escape and because it’s fluff, not to bring me down.