Why did I pick up this book?

I saw this book's cover and was intrigued. My husband is very into origami and is constantly making origami cranes; he has probably made at least a thousand by now. Reading the description made it sound like maybe Evelyn would share some of this interest as well, plus the road trip held some interest. The Death With Dignity Act is something I believe in and as Luc was intending to go to Oregon with this in mind, I thought it would be a unique book to read.

My review

I wanted to like this book so much, but oh. my. god. was it slow and painfully dull. I was sorely disappointed and found myself considering DNFing it at 25%, but ended up skimming it as best I could.

I never felt any real connection between Evelyn and Luc. Their relationship felt flimsy at best before they met up again after not having seen each other for three years and the relationship that panned out over the story felt really fake, especially the ending. As of writing this review, it occurs to me that they remembered "being close" before Evelyn moved away prior to this reunion, but how did she never realize he was sick? His heart would have been an issue long before that and as far as I can remember, this never came up in even the lightest of manners.

The origami cover and Evelyn's tendency to fold didn't really make that much of an impact on the story. The summary made it sound like she would sincerely be trying to fold at least one thousand, perhaps two thousand, in order to get the wish that one is granted if the feat is accomplished. By the end of the novel, I think she'd only managed one hundred. It felt like a letdown because it was built up visually and summarily.

There were also some events of the novel that felt kind of skeevy, particularly Luc marrying Evelyn so that she will be taken care of by his insurance policy. That was awkward enough, though I suppose I can understand why his parents would've taken the policy out, but when he mentioned knowing the suicide clause, that was creepy. However, that became a moot point when he died via car crash, a horrific call back to how he go his heart in the first place. That whole situation felt weird and I hated that they got married because as much as he professed to love her and want to protect her, leaving her a widow seems like a good option? The money seemed more important; taking emotion out of it I get it, but reading it, I felt like my skin was crawling.

Would I buy this book?

Very much no. My problems with the story aside, the writing was terribly slow and uninteresting.



I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.