There has been a lot of chatter on this book so I wanted to check it out for myself. I blew through it in like three or four days. It was really great.
Cora and Sam meet in a baby group. Cora is married, happily she believes. Her husband, however, seems to disappoint her at every turn - he spends his free time smoking a lot of pot on the porch while the kids sleep and that carries over into the bedroom. He's failing at work and so she's picking up the slack everywhere, and she's miserable while doing it. Sam is married as well - to a high achieving spouse who is a lawyer and also believes he's happy, but is he? It's almost like he is emasculated, or feels that way, right from the get go. So when the two meet at the baby group, they are instantly attracted to each other. Cora believes that Sam listens to her in ways that her husband does not. They become fast friends and then decide to bring their spouses into the mix.
Cora, however, begins to fantasize about what an affair between them would look like. In that timeline, they are seeing each other while in the "reality" timeline, they refrain. Things in that alternate timeline become super serious super fast. The timelines remain distinct at first, with the reader bouncing between the two, but then they blur together until there is only one timeline.
I really liked this book but it is INTENSE. Their relationship spans ten years of wishing and longing, until the trigger is pulled. The book is VERY readable and Somers has created real and flawed characters. They are absolutely relatable. SO good and the way that the timelines are slowly blurred is absolutely brilliant. Highly recommend.
