Swimming Upstream - Ruth Mancini

4 Stars!

ABOUT THE BOOK -

“I once read that the end of a relationship is like being involved in a road traffic accident. Which is quite fitting really, given what happened.”

After seven years, Lizzie wonders whether she’s truly happy with her long-term boyfriend. When one wrong step and a chance meeting set off an unexpected chain of events, her life begins to unravel. In the same day that she meets Martin, an attractive lifeguard, her old friend Catherine re-appears. But is Martin really all he seems? And what is the secret that Catherine is hiding? As Lizzie struggles to confront the ghosts of her past, can she survive the shocking twist that will change the course of her future?

Swimming Upstream is a life-affirming and often humorous story about a young woman’s pursuit of happiness. It is also a story of female friendship, love, and divided loyalties – and the moral choices that we find ourselves making when the chips are down.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Ruth Mancini was born in South-West London and studied in Cambridge and London where she gained a bachelors degree in French and Spanish and a post-graduate diploma in Law. For several years she worked in the publishing industry before leaving to travel and to write the first draft of Swimming Upstream. She then put her writing career on hold for several years whilst she retrained as a lawyer.

She now lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two children. She still practises as a lawyer and juggles that with writing and raising the children.

Connect with Ruth on Facebook, Twitter, or her website, RuthMancini.com.

MY REVIEW -

The last half of this story makes everything else so worth it! Unfortunately I thought the beginning of this book was very slow, and I thought I was not going to enjoy it at all. I had trouble getting into the characters etc. BUT... then all of the sudden - it was like in the Wizard of Oz movie where everything goes techno color! Halfway through the book - it got so good I could not put it down! The story and the characters got very tense, very involved, and sad, it is just too bad that it took so long to get to that point.

So I think this is definitely one of those books that is worth the wait! It is worth reading through the slow beginning to get to the amazing end. There are some very deep moments in this book and some very on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. This was one of those "if anything can go wrong, it will" kind of stories. Break up with your BF, have to move out, get hurt, go to the hospital, car gets stolen, get hurt again and go to the hospital again, friend gets ill... can anything go right for this chick?

There are a lot of great lines in this book, a lot of food for thought. Here are a couple of quotes I liked -

"You think growing up is like - its like, one day you're going to wake up with a bowl of cherries and life membership to the "Sorted Out Club"

"Well, I got attracted to other people's problems and tried to solve them instead. It's like some kind of self-nurturing by proxy"

Thank you - Sarka at Booktrope for giving me this e-book to read and review!

Get your copy from Amazon (only .99! definitely worth it!) - HERE