Story for the Week
Anyone who has seen Friends (and many who haven’t) understands the context of “We were on a break!” In case you’re not one of the many, it ties into the on-again/off-again relationship between Ross Geller and Rachel Green. When Ross shows his possessive and jealous side over someone Rachel works with (Mark), Rachel ends up suggesting they should take a break.
Angry and hurt, Ross storms out and goes to a bar with Joey and Chandler. Mark happens to call Rachel, planning to leave her a message since she’s supposed to be out with Ross. When she answers and is clearly upset, Mark brings dinner over, and Rachel admits that she didn’t really want to take a break.
In the meantime, Chandler and Joey convince Ross that he should call Rachel. When he hears Mark in the background, he picks up a girl and spends the night with her. Rachel of course finds out, and they split up…again.
Throughout the rest of the series, different characters take jabs at Ross for his indiscretion, and his retort is always that he and Rachel were on a break. They were, of course. Ross didn’t cheat, but the common belief is that sleeping with someone else the same night was pretty much inexcusable.
Despite the volatile split, fans of the show still spent the rest of the series wondering “will they or won’t they?” A common theme in television and movies, it keeps people watching, it keeps up the suspense. And when characters finally get together…well, sometimes fans are thrilled and sometimes they think it ruins everything.
In the upcoming release reviewed here, there’s a definite “will they or won’t they element,” and it definitely kept me reading. And it didn’t ruin anything. 😉
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for The One That Got Away by Charlotte Rixon
336 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: August 15, 2023
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher’s Description
Two years together.
Twenty years apart.
One day to change their story.
2000, Benjamin’s world is turned upside down the night he meets Clara. Instinctively, he knows that they are meant for each other, but a devastating mistake on their last night at university will take their lives in very different directions.
20 years later, Clara has a high-profile job and a handsome husband. But despite the trappings of success, she isn’t happy, and she knows that a piece of her heart still belongs to Benjamin, the boy she fell in love with years earlier. The boy whose life she fears she ruined.
When a bombing is reported in the city where they first met, Clara is pulled back to a place she tries not to remember and the first love she could never forget. Searching for Benjamin, Clara is forced to confront the events that tore them apart. But is it too late to put right what went wrong?
************
Main Characters:
- Clara Davies-Clark Beaumont – early 40s, journalist, married to Thom Beaumont for 10 years, but still thinks about her college boyfriend
- Benjamin Edwards – Clara’s college boyfriend, has a son Aiden; always spent his Saturdays watching soccer, especially if Newcastle City was playing
- Lauren – Clara’s college roommate and best friend, works in human resources, the only other person who knows everything about Clara and Benjamin
- Thom Beaumont – Clara’s husband, successful jeweler, proposed to Clara after they were together for six months
Trigger warning: terrorism, sexual assault
The One That Got Away tells the story of Clara and Benjamin over the span of 22 years. It begins with a bombing at a soccer stadium in Newcastle, which is where Clara and Benjamin originally met. Clara works for a newspaper, and when she hears the breaking news, she finds herself buying a ticket for the three-hour train ride to Newcastle from London. She tells her husband that she’s out with Lauren and sets out to find Benjamin. She must make sure he’s alive.
Over the course of the book, we experience Clara and Benjamin’s love story told in alternating chapters from each of their points of view. They had an amazing love story in college, seemingly perfect for one another and deeply in love. But something happened that tore them apart, and the author does a great job of offering pieces of their past and present along the way.
This story is perfectly paced with tidbits thrown in that make you want to keep reading. I wanted to know why Clara and Benjamin split up because they seemed so perfectly matched. Despite their split, they kept tabs on one another and reached out occasionally. The biggest question, of course, is what happened to split them up to begin with because they obviously never stopped loving one another.
When I looked up the author, I discovered that Charlotte Rixon is a pen name for Charlotte Duckworth, a bestselling suspense writer and who I previously rated 4 stars for Unfollow Me (Who Wants to be Internet Famous?). Suddenly, the desire to keep reading made perfect sense. This is romantic women’s fiction, but I definitely felt the suspense.
I think everyone has someone in their past who pops into their head every once in a while. Where did they end up? Are they happy? Do they have a family, kids? Rixon’s book takes those thoughts a step further because Clara and Benjamin never stop thinking about one another. Their lives kind of revolve around the what if, and I enjoyed discovering it right along with them.
I hope Charlotte Rixon continues to write suspenseful women’s fiction. I will definitely continue to read it.
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