Will NOT Cry...

There's something to be said for curling up with a book with predictable and familiar themes. I try to tell myself that I only read "novel" novels...but the truth is...I find myself sometimes drawn to reading books that are so formulaic I'd do better with the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series that I loved as a child. Sure, the choices would be predictable and also limited to A..B...C...or..D..... Exactly my point! That small amount of choice and the feeling of likely coming to a correct conclusion as to what happens is often times gratifying in a comforting way. I suppose if I'm wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, adding a book I can comfortably wrap my mind around is just adding to the theme. Homey...in my own terrain...intimately acquainted with...and mild curiosity answered teasingly only a few pages away.

That was precisely the case with Kristin Hannah's Firefly Lane, a story of two women sharing a tight friendship despite differences, distances, and decades. It's precisely the kind of book a woman might want to curl up with if she's craving alone time but simultaneously yearning for another woman friend to fill up the empty spaces of her heart. It's predictable to an adult woman. And yet...it was the paper companion I stuffed in a suitcase and took on a road trip with my kids. I looked forward to settling down with it once under my sheets in the foreign hotel room a state away from "home." I got a hearty laugh during an emotional time with the characters when one stated, "Just don't tell my mom!" There was also the moment that I kept telling myself sarcastically, "I'm not going to cry over this dramatic, formulaic piece of chick lit." I'll put my cards on the table though.... There was a moment when I looked across to the other hotel bed at my twelve year old daughter, and wrinkled up my face like a Shar-Pei, and let the tears out. This little gonna-be-a-woman someday daughter of mine said, "aaaawww, mama" sweetly...but it led to a little giggle.

Witnesses. Cards flat on table. Some websites might only give it one star...and I've given my criticism as well.....but it still evoked an emotional response out of me!