Quick synopsis: Darcy and Rachel have been friends for life. They grew up together and they've been like sisters from the moment they met and played together. Darcy is the pretty one, the one who gets all the attention, the life of the party, the one with the glamorous job. She works for PR and she basically just has to look nice and talk sweetly, and she gets paid pretty well. Rachel, on the other hand, is the serious workaholic kind. Even with her intelligence, she was always overshadowed by Darcy's charm. Heck, even her parents favor Darcy over her. Then came Dex, whom Rachel met from law school. Typical leading man: good looking, intelligent, charming, sweet. It was revealed as the book progresses that he initially liked Rachel back from law school but as he was making his move on her, Rachel made it quite clear she wasn't interested. Law school was her priority. Having had Rachel as a common friend, Darcy and Dex met. Glam gal met hot banker and then fell in love. They got engaged and is soon to be wed, with Rachel as maid of honor. But on Rachel's drunken 30th birthday, feelings they thought were lost, submerged. In a state of vulnerability, everything changed.
This book turned out quite interesting for me. For one, it gives you an insight on "the other woman". Usually, in an adulterous love, we sympathize with the one in the relationship, but this one is from the point of view of the mistress (technically, she's still not a mistress as they're still not married). Not only that, but she is the best friend of the bride. It's great how Rachel struggles whether to fight for her love, or to give up, and be the dutiful bestfriend that she is. It's refreshing how she discovers happiness in her empty life (at the expense of being a fiance-stealer) and that for once, tossed all logicality aside and just went for it.
I am a bit disappointed as to how the author ended it. Dex ended it with Darcy and chose Rachel (after all, he has been in love with her since law school). Darcy confessed she's in love (and is pregnant, by the way) with Marcus (the guy Rachel dated, and is one of Dex's best buddies). Darcy found out his ex-groom and ex-maid-of-honor has been sleeping behind her back and stormed out in anger declaring that their (Darcy and Rachel's) friendship is over. No decent talk between the two bestfriends. Their friendship, lost. I was disappointed, but somehow it seems fitting. I mean, after such incident, you don't expect to just forgive and forget right? You can't just simply hang out together again and expect that it'll be the same. It does take time.
The next book "Something Blue" is from Darcy's point of view, but I'm still in a struggle as to whether I should read it or not. I'm not a fan of Darcy's character. But I think, I'll understand her more if I read it from her perspective. I somehow hope (like the other readers out there), that there'll be "Something Old" and "Something New"... maybe a look into the future and have the two girls reunite and renew their friendship?
Few excerpts from the book that I'd like to share:
I run my hands along my glass, marveling at how much has changed in such a short time. How much I have changed. I was a parent-pleaser, a dutiful friend. I made safe, careful choices and hoped that things would fall into place for me. Then I fell in love with Dex and still viewed it as something happening to me. I hoped that he would make things right, or that fate would intervene. But I have learned that you make your own happiness, that part of going for what you want means losing something else. And when the stakes are high, the losses can be that much greater.
Dinner will not be perfect, but I am learning that perfection isn't what matters. In fact, it's the very thing that can destroy you if you let it.
And I do love Dex. I have loved him from the very beginning, back in law school, when I pretended to myself that he wasn't my type. I love him for his intelligence, his sensitivity, his courage. I love him wholly and unconditionally and without reservation. I love him enough to take risks. I love him enough to sacrifice a friendship. I love him enough to accept my own happiness and use it, in turn, to make him happy back.
There is a knock at my door. I stand to open it. I am ready.
No comments:
Post a Comment