REVIEW for Love and Other Natural Disasters

A huge shout-out to Miriam at Hachette for sending along this excellent book!

TITLE: Love and Other Natural Disasters

AUTHOR: Holly Shumas

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction

DATE: January 2009

RATING: 4 Stars

Love and Other Natural Disasters is the second novel written by Holly Shumas. I thoroughly enjoyed her first book and was quite happy and excited to read her newest book.

First off, for those who are chick lit fans, unfortunately, this book does not really qualify. Although it is about love and betrayal, it is wayyyyy too serious and introspective to be a chick lit – which I have to say kind of disappointed me a little bit. I was hoping for a bit of a light read and this is NOT what I got.

Having said that, I must say that this really was an excellent read. From the opening chapter where our main character Eve finds herself grateful for her husband, child and soon to be second child – you get the eerie feeling that a bomb is about to explode and change everybody’s life for ever. Indeed, by page two, we discover that her husband, the love of her life, is cheating on her – or more to the point, has been exchanging emails with a woman for the past year – and although they have never ‘consumed’ their relationship, the intimacy of the emails is enough to send Eve over the top.This is actually a very ‘in’ subject right now.

I have read countless articles about this very thing – if your mate is exchanging emails with someone else – is this considered cheating? As far as Eve is considered, she has been betrayed by the man she loves and although she does agree to a reconciliation, it is obvious that the relationship is never quite the same afterwards.

What I like about this novel is the sensitivity used by the author to describe everybody involved. Although we, as a society, like to blame everything on the cheater and believe that the other party has been horribly harmed, life is not often quite that black and white and author Holly Shumas demonstrates that very nicely in her book. I particularly liked the scenes in which Eve reads her husband’s emails to his ‘mistress’. Eve gets to see herself through her husband’s eyes - and obviously does not like what she sees. I would have liked to have seen more of this type of thing in the book – more of these revelations- the insight into Jon’s view of his marriage, his wife and his life – why did he feel the need to hook up with another woman?

This book is touching and real and talks about a very, very delicate and scary subject. However, it is done with grace, love and hope.I highly suggest you read this book – and then go snoop in your mate’s emails – just in case.