Losing You by Susan Lewis
Arrow Books (paperback) 2012
644 pages
I borrowed this book from The Mitchell Library (http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/the-mitchell-library/pages/home.aspx).
BLURB FROM THE COVER
Lauren Scott is bright, talented and beautiful. At eighteen, she is the most precious gift in the world to her mother, and has a dazzling career ahead of her.
Oliver Lomax is a young man full of promise, despite the shadow his own, deeply troubled, mother casts over him.
Then one fateful night, Oliver makes a decision that tears their worlds apart.
Until then, Lauren and Oliver had never met, but now they become so closely bound together that their families are forced to confront truths they hoped they’d never have to face, secrets they’d never even imagined…
EXTRACT
‘Guess what? I have had the most brilliant idea!’
Lauren Scott’s exquisite amber eyes were sparkling with mischief as she breezed into the kitchen, where her mother was engrossed on the computer.
REVIEW
I enjoyed Losing You. Losing You does have some flaws but overall I enjoyed the novel. I’ve never read Susan Lewis before. Losing You is a proper tear-jerker and tugs at the old heart strings. I connected with Losing You on an emotional level and it’s hard not to enjoy something that touches you. Losing You is very well written and easy to follow. I found myself turning the pages fairly quickly. I got caught up in the world and characters Lewis created and wasn’t bored at any point. I liked how Lewis showed the affect the drink driving accident had on both Lauren, the victim and Oliver, the driver who hit her. They are both deeply affected and forever changed. Losing You could easily have been one sided with Lauren the perfect, wonderful angel on one side and Oliver, the drunk, reckless monster on the other. I like the contrasts in both families. I thought Sylvie, Oliver’s lush mother was very well written and realistic and I felt sorry for her. Lauren’s father was a horrible person especially when he says terrible things to Lauren when she’s recovering in a brain unit. Now to the stuff that didn’t work. Losing You does not really kick off until over 170 pages in. The novel starts painfully slowly and to be honest at least 150 pages could have been cut with no ill effect. Losing You should have started just before the accident as everything until this point was superfluous. I really didn’t like Lauren at first. We are told, over and over for hundreds of pages how wonderful she is; beautiful, talented, a wonderful daughter and designed for a dazzling career. Her portrayal in the first hundred or so pages made me feel quite nauseous. Nobody is that perfect and I found it unrealistic. I was relieved when her diary revealed that she was far from the angel everyone believed her to be. Her flaws were more realistic. I thought Lauren and Oliver’s relationship was sweet but had trouble believing they fell in love when she was in a coma and unable to speak, move or communicate. I thought that was far-fetched. Overall, Losing You is a decent novel and packs an emotional punch.
RATING
