How to Walk Away Review

Title:  How to Walk Away
Author:  Katherine Center
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press
Release Date:  May 15, 2018
Preorder Link:  Amazon

My Rating:  5 Unforgettable, Courageous Hearts

*Many thanks to St. Martin's Press & Netgally for a copy of this book.

Synopsis:

From the author of Happiness for Beginners comes an unforgettable love story about finding joy even in the darkest of circumstances.
Margaret Jacobsen has a bright future ahead of her: a fiancé she adores, her dream job, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in one tumultuous moment .

In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Margaret must figure out how to move forward on her own terms while facing long-held family secrets, devastating heartbreak, and the idea that love might find her in the last place she would ever expect.

How to Walk Away is Katherine Center at her very best: an utterly charming, hopeful, and romantic novel that will capture reader’s hearts with every page.

Review:
How to Walk Away is a powerful, poignant, heartfelt story of one woman's tumultuous journey from being on the cusp of a perfect life to losing it all in a heartbeat to clawing and scratching her way out of the depths of despair while desperately searching for the courage, determination, and motivation to live again - whatever that might mean for her.  I started this book late one afternoon and finished it before midnight in one sitting.  From cover to cover, I remained ensnared in the web of a story I simply couldn't stop reading.  Katherine Center's brilliantly written book engages a range of human emotions - the giddy highs of hope, anticipation, and happiness to the dark lows of despair, utter hopelessness, and uncontrollable grief and loss.  From tears and an aching heart to smiles and a ray of hope, this book moved me.  I can never ask for more than that from a book or author.

I'm not discussing details of this story as there's no way to do that without completely spoiling it for future readers.  Instead, I'll share the beautiful job Center does in delivering characters that are realistically depicted given the devastating situation they find themselves facing.  Love them or hate them, every character's role is portrayed flawlessly - in color - vivid and rich with emotional turmoil - either degrading and condescending or supportive and loving.  I found myself wanting to hug some and strangle others, but either way they felt real.  The genuine, thought-provoking plot line that was so obviously researched in minute detail is conveyed through a writing style that flows and ebbs like an ocean wave at all the right times, portraying the highs and lows of this story with an emotional punch to the heart and a serious reality check to the brain.  As the story unfolds, several beautiful, life messages emerge from Center's gripping telling of Maggie's agonizing journey, but none ring truer than the importance of summoning the will to try again - to reach for your new happy ever after.  We must recognize, embrace, and accept that there are many different kinds of happy ever after.  You may not get the one you once dreamed of, but you can achieve another that is just as beautiful if you dare own it.  Katherine Center's How to Walk Away is a captivating, breathtaking story of hope, courage, perseverance, and the never-ending power of true love.  A Page-Burning, Must Read!

My Rating:  5 Unforgettable, Courageous Hearts . . . And that's the truth!

Cross My Heart . . . xxx

Sandra