Book review: Making It Last by Ruthie Knox

 

I typically only review children's books or homeschooling books, but this one is a gem, and really spoke to me as a wife and mother:  Making It Last by Ruthie Knox.

This is an incredible, full-length-novel emotions and story packed into a novella, something incredibly hard to do but pulled off by this amazing author.

This is another look into the story of Amber and Tony from How to Misbehave. They now have 3 kids (boys, ages 10 to 6), and a busy life that leaves little time for them to just be a couple. Every minute is taken up by the routine, by the kids (written as real kids with real problems that drive real parents nuts), by the chores, by the thousand and one worries every parent has every day. In all this, both have lost the joy and passion of being just a couple.

"...because I don't know who I am anymore. I'm afraid I'm not anybody. That I'm only your wife and the kids' mom and that's it."

What mom hasn't felt this way at some time? It call comes to a head at a destination wedding vacation that really doesn't go well. Amber and Tony then need to figure out how to go forward, how to fix what seems unfixable. But they still have their love, just buried beneath the load of other stuff.

But he didn't know. Tony never gave himself enough credit. He didn't know how amazing he was. Everything he'd accomplished, everything he gave her and their family.

He didn't know what she thought, how she felt, because she didn't tell him. She'd walled herself off, kept too many secrets, hid too many disappointments because she didn't want to hurt him, and now she was hurting him anyway."

Beautiful, so glad I had the chance to read this gem.

I received a complimentary copy of this from Netgalley.