Me for You by Lolly Winston
Published by Gallery Books on March 12, 2019
Genres: Children, Fiction, Friendship, Motherhood, Women’s Fiction
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Good Grief comes a richly poignant and stirring story that asks: How soon is too soon to fall in love again?
The last thing Rudy expected was to wake up one Saturday morning, a widow at fifty-four years old. Now, ten months after the untimely death of his beloved wife, he’s still not sure how to move on from the defining tragedy of his life—but his new job is helping. After being downsized from his finance position, Rudy turned to his first love: the piano. Some people might be embarrassed to work as the piano player at Nordstrom, but for Rudy, there’s joy in bringing a little music into the world. And it doesn’t hurt that Sasha, the Hungarian men’s watch clerk who is finally divorcing her no-good husband, finds time to join him at the bench every now and then.
Just when Rudy and Sasha’s relationship begins to deepen, the police come to the store with an update about Rudy’s wife’s untimely death—a coworker has confessed to her murder—but Rudy’s actions are suspicious enough to warrant a second look at him, too. With Sasha’s husband suddenly reappearing, and Rudy’s daughter confronting her own marital problems, suddenly life becomes more complicated than Rudy and Sasha could have imagined.
With Winston’s trademark humor and sweetness that will appeal to readers of Jennifer Weiner and Fredrik Backman but is uniquely her own, Lolly Winston delivers a heartfelt and realistic portrait of loss and grief, hope and forgiveness, and two imperfect people coming together to create a perfect love story.
Earlier this year, I was super excited to find out that I had been selected to be included in the BookSparks’ Winter Reading Challenge 2019 (#WRC2019)! Today’s post is about the fourth book of the challenge – Me for You by Lolly Winston. The book arrived and it is beautiful – I love the cover but to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect since I had never heard of the author, Lolly Winston.
Now that I’ve had my read of the book, I will say that throughout Me for You, the characters share a story with readers of a 50-something couple, Rudy and Bethany Knowles, ready to enjoy their golden years together, when unfortunately, Rudy wakes up shocked and can’t believe that Bee has died in her sleep.
With his daughter CeCe keeping her eye on him while her world changes, Rudy tries to come to terms with life as a widower. Fast forward a year later, and he’s still trying to work through how to move forward after losing the love of his life….. enter Sasha. She’s Rudy’s coworker who he secretly had a little crush on even when he was still actively married, and their romance thence begins. It’s not so easy though, even as is feelings deepen for Sasha, Rudy still struggles with grief and depression and even a bit of survivor’s guilt which ultimately leads him to the hospital ward for therapy.
As the story moves back and forth in time, I found myself caught up in everything about the story – even the mysterious news the police detective brings to Rudy. I felt that Me for You was a great book – sad and emotional, but also uplifting while at the same time, providing hope. The characters are well written and readers will both laugh and cry while reading this story.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born and raised in the glamorous insurance capital of Hartford, Conn., Lolly Winston holds an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she wrote a collection of short stories as her thesis.
She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1993, where she finally quit the corporate world to become a freelance journalist, starting out as a stringer for Automotive News. She went on to write for the San Jose Mercury News Sunday magazine, New Woman, Redbook, Glamour, Family Circle, Working Mother, Sunset, Lifetime and others. She teaches writing classes in fiction, feature stories and the art of the personal essay.
She lives with her husband in Northern California.
I have received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the BookSparks Winter Reading Challenge 2019 (WRC#2019) in exchange for this post. A positive review was not required.
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