Story for the Week
WYSIWYG. Pronounced wiz-ee-wig, it means “what you see is what you get.” My first exposure to WYSIWIG was right after college when I worked for a typesetting agency. At the time, personal computers weren’t very commonplace, and they didn’t have the capability to create a fully formatted page. They were definitely not what you see is what you get.
As technology advanced, we could insert pictures into designs, we could crop them and maybe change the exposure. Over time, someone really talented with a program like Photoshop could completely change the look of a photo without anyone realizing they had done it. In today’s world, you can select a pre-made filter that completely changes the picture you’re taking before you even snap the photo…no editing required.
I don’t post a lot of photos on social media, and when I do, they’re definitely not edited. I don’t have the patience or the inclination to try to “perfect” the pictures I take. If it’s something I want to share, it goes up as is. If you compare my Instagram to other “bookstagrammers,” my photos are not styled in any way. It’s a photo of the book cover…that’s it. With me, what you see is what you get.
But if I didn’t write these blog posts, people who saw my social media wouldn’t have a very good picture of who I am as a person. Social media shows us nothing about who a person really is. It shows us what people want us to see. Sometimes that’s the truth, and sometimes it’s what we think is the truth.
The truth is everyone has secrets. No one is a completely open book. We project what we want the rest of the world to see, and sometimes what they think they see is not what they get. 😉
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 Stars for All Good Things by Amanda Prowse
319 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: August 15, 2023
Purchased on Amazon.
Publisher’s Description
Daisy Harrop has always felt like she exists in the background, and since her mother stopped getting out of bed, her life has come to a complete standstill. Daisy would give anything to leave the shabbiest house on the street and be more like the golden Kelleways next door, with their perfectly raked driveway and flourishing rose garden…
Winnie Kelleway is proud of the beautiful family she’s built. They’ve had their ups and downs―hasn’t everyone? But this weekend, celebrating her golden wedding anniversary is truly proof of their happiness, a joyful gathering for all the neighbors to see.
But as the festivities get underway, are the cracks in the “perfect” Kelleway life beginning to show? As one bombshell revelation leads to another and events start to spiral out of control, Daisy and Winnie are about to discover that things aren’t always what they seem.
************
Main Characters:
- Lisa and Marty Harrop – married, live in the run-down home Lisa inherited from her mother, Lisa has been suffering from debilitating depression for the past three years
- Jake and Daisy Harrop – Lisa and Marty’s children; Jake is best friends with Cassian Kelleway, and Daisy has a crush on him; Daisy works as a server at the local Italian restaurant
- Winnie and Bernie Kelleway – built their family’s wealth with a successful business renting linens to upscale hotels; celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary
- Lawrence and Julie Kelleway – Winnie and Bernie’s son and daughter-in-law; Lawrence had a future with a professional soccer team until he broke his ankle; moved back to the UK from Australia three years ago
- Cassian and Domino Kelleway – Lawrence and Julie’s children; angry that the family moved out of Australia
- Cleo and Georgie Richardson – Winnie and Bernie’s daughter and son-in-law; Winnie feels that Cleo settled with Georgie; expecting their first child
All Good Things by Amanda Prowse will keep you reading long into the night. Every character’s point of view captivated me. This story exemplifies the idea that no one can possibly know what is going on in someone else’s life.
The character point of view changes from one chapter to the next throughout the book, giving the reader a glimpse into everyone’s lives. Those glimpses tell very different stories depending on who narrates. Daisy is completely enamored by the Kelleways and has always wanted to be one of them. The matriarch, Winnie, will do everything possible to keep up appearances because that is who the Kelleways are. Lawrence lives every day thinking about how he was expected to be a star soccer player until he was injured. Cleo has spent her entire life in her brother’s shadow, but she adores her husband. Lisa can’t force herself to get out of bed and just live every day.
There are cracks in the Kelleway façade, and we as readers learn the severity of every secret. Nothing is as it seems, and no one seems to realize it. They each see what’s in their own small circle of existence with no thought that they could be mistaken about what exists outside…even within the same immediate family.
This book is uplifting and heartbreaking all at once. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I literally gasped at the final page. I had a specific opinion throughout the entire book about something (I really don’t want to explain more than that), and the last page changed everything.
Amanda Prowse has outdone herself yet again. 🥰
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