{WWRW} Finding Colin Firth

Linking up with Housewife Spice for What We're Reading Wednesday and I actually read a book not because it was on a list, I had to, or because it would make me a better person....just because I wanted to!

After last Wednesday passed without a book read, I made a trip to the library, determined to find SOMETHING to read for fun.

In the new releases, I found something that sounded fun:   Finding Colin Firth. 

The caption under the book really captures the essence:  One summer.  Three women.  And Mr. Darcy.

A small town in Maine becomes overwhelmed with excitement when leading man Colin Firth is rumored to be coming to town for the filming of a movie.  The book plays on this at a couple parts and there's a lovely scene at the end when he's actually spotted, but the real story is told in the lives of three women whose paths overlap.

A reporter, a birth mother, and an adopted daughter.  The reporter, Gemma, becomes unglued when she's unexpectedly pregnant.  Her story really explores the woman who's not ready to be a mother, even when everything on paper says she should be excited.  Her husband is thrilled and she's not ready to give herself over to motherhood. 

I thought a lot of her struggle was something that would resonate with a lot of women, but I felt like the ending to her journey was such a cop-out.  Really?  *SPOILER ALERT* Her successful lawyer husband is going to take a few years off so she can work in a small town newspaper?  It just seemed like such a PC answer.  I know it's actually an answer that works for a lot of people, but it felt like she was selling herself short on her journey.  In the end, her husband had to make every sacrifice, and she made none.....doesn't say a lot about the growth from her journey.  Her husband was willing to lay down his dreams for the future, but hers couldn't be modified in the least.....way to be a team player.

I really loved the second two stories though.  Veronica is a birth mother who gave her daughter up twenty-two years ago.  She's waited anxiously for the day her daughter might come looking for her.  Bea is a 22 y/o who found out in a deathbed confession that the mother who raised her wasn't her birth mother.  So, she goes in search of the woman who is.  Perhaps their story of reuniting is also a little far-fetched, but it was so poignant.  I especially loved the realism of them not knowing what to say and Bea not feeling any particular way about the stranger who gave birth to her.  I think it would be hard to pinpoint those feelings and what that person should be to you after such a shock.

Overall, it was such a nice read.  I felt like I was experiencing the cathartic process of these women as they went on their journeys.  Aside from taking a different path than the reporter, it was a good journey.

Go get spicy over at Housewife Spice for some more grown-up book reports :)