Tempting Fate Book Review

Tempting Fate by Jane Green

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Blurb:

Gabby and Elliott have been happily married for eighteen years. They have two teenaged daughters. They have built a life together. Forty-three year old Gabby is the last person to have an affair. She can't relate to the way her friends desperately try to cling to the beauty and allure of their younger years...And yet she too knows her youth is quickly slipping away. She could never imagine how good it would feel to have a handsome younger man show interest in her - until the night it happens. Matt makes Gabby feel sparkling, fascinating, alive - something she hasn't felt in years. What begins as a long-distance friendship soon develops into an emotional affair as Gabby discovers her limits and boundaries are not where she expects them to be. Intoxicated, she has no choice but to step ever deeper into the allure of attraction and attention, never foreseeing the life-changing consequences that lie ahead. If she makes one wrong move she could lose everything - and find out what really matters most.

Review by Brittany:

As a long-standing fan of Jane Green, it's no surprise that I picked this one up. This is one of her most recent novels and definitely the newest one of hers that I have read.

I loved this book. When thinking about this review, I was trying to pinpoint exactly what it was that I loved so much about this one that made it stand out from her others. All I could come up with was maturity. There is a certain level of emotional maturity that Green reaches in this novel that really stood out from her earlier novels. This maturity shows that, over her years of writing, she has really grown as an author. During the entire book, Gabby goes through so much, has so many experiences, and Green really captured an emotional realism for each situation.

I had thought this book was going to lead up to the climax of Gabby and Matt's affair, but a lot of the book focused on the lead up and the aftermath, with little emphasis placed on the actual affair. I was surprised by this take on the story, but I appreciated it. I think the exploration of what can come from such a big decision is worth spending more time on than the action of the affair. I also thought that Green did a fantastic job of making Matt appealing, without making Elliott seem less so. Throughout the book, it was hard to root for any one person to be with Gabby because they were both so wonderful and human. I also thought Green did well with the reactions of friends of Gabby and Elliott, and the two daughters. Everyone had their role to play, and Green did well giving them all that role.

Overall, I really just adored this book. I loved the emotional aspects of it and the fact that the focus was mostly on the aftermath of an affair and the process of trying to recover from making such a choice. This is a great example of Jane Green's work.

Notable quotes:

The biggest mistake any of us can make is to keep secrets. They always come out in the end, and it is the unspoken that causes the most problems.

...she may be going through the motions, but she is not present in her life.

There really was no greater hurt that could occur, nothing that could happen that would make things worse than they already were.

He missed being heard, being thought of as interesting, rather than being taken for granted.

She closes her eyes for a second as she stands by the fridge, so tired, so desperately wanting her life to be something, anything, other than the life she has.