Book Review: Idea of Love by Patti Callahan Henry

Members of the Vise Library were selected to review The Idea of Love.  We received a copy of Patti Callahan Henry's book for an honest review.

About the book:

As we like to say in the south,
"Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story."

Ella's life has been completely upended. She's young, beautiful, and deeply in love--until her husband dies in a tragic sailing accident while trying save her. Or so she'll have everyone believe. Screenwriter Hunter needs a hit, but crippling writers' block and a serious lack of motivation are getting him nowhere. He's on the look-out for a love story. It doesn't matter who it belongs to.

When Hunter and Ella meet in Watersend, South Carolina it feels like the perfect match, something close to fate. In Ella, Hunter finds the perfect love story, full of longing and sacrifice. It's the stuff of epic films. In Hunter, Ella finds possibility. It's an opportunity to live out a fantasy - the life she wishes she had because hers is too painful. And more real. Besides. what's a little white lie between strangers?
But one lie leads to another, and soon Hunter and Ella find themselves caught in a web of deceit. As they try to untangle their lies and reclaim their own lives, they feel something stronger is keeping them together. And so they wonder: can two people come together for all the wrong reasons and still make it right?

When Hunter and Ella meet they lie about everything concerning themselves.  They tell each other versions of their lives that they each wish were true.  Ella's husband has left her for her best friend's sister (she tells Hunter he died trying to rescue her) and Hunter is lying about the project he is working on (he says it's a history book about the area, but he's looking for inspiration for a screenplay).  They each find that it is getting harder and harder to tell each other the truth.   Hunter eventually goes back to his life in L.A. and Ella gets what she wants (or does she?).  Even though these characters meet under false information, they are in a way so honest about other things when they spend time together.  There are some parts of dialogue that will have you laughing while you read.  I love the scene when everything comes to a head and laughed out loud.  I loved Ella's friend Mimi.  She was a riot and Ella's only true friend through the whole book.  This was a fun read and I expected nothing less from Henry!

Buy the book:

     Amazon

       Barnes and Noble
      Parnassus Books

About the author:

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times Bestselling author --Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Between the Tides, The Art of Keeping Secrets, Driftwood Summer and The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story, Coming Up for Air, And Then I Found You and The Stories We Tell. 

Patti was a finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction and twice a nominee for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Book of the Year. Patti is hailed as a fresh new voice in southern fiction. She is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs and women's groups where she discusses the importance of storytelling and anything else they want to talk about.

Patti grew up as a Minister's daughter, learning early how storytelling effects our lives. She grew up spending her summers on Cape Cod where she began her love affair with the beach, ocean, tides and nature of the coast. Moving south at the tender age of twelve, she found solace in books and stories. While attending Auburn University, she met a southern boy who later proposed on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, next to a historic lighthouse overlooking the Sound. After earning her Master's degree in Child Health, Patti worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist until her first child was born.

Patti is a full time writer, wife and mother living with her husband and three children in Mountain Brook Alabama where she is crafting her next novel.

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