READ ALONG: THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY BY KATJA MILLAY PT.2 AND FINAL THOUGHTS

Where to Find TSoT: 

Amazon | GoodReads | Barnes & Noble

Where to Find Katja Millay:

GoodReads | Facebook | Twitter

This post will be dedicated to the last 50% of The Sea of Tranquility Read Along. Our post on the first 50% can be found here. 

WARNING: Most likely there will be SPOILERS as you scroll down.

***5 Stars***

As I mentioned in our first post on TSoT, I read this book many months ago but had absolutely no problem rereading it. Let me say...it was just as good the second time I read it. 

The last 50% of this novel moved swiftly. We see the relationship between Nastya and Josh bloom. And wither. And bloom again. I loved his reaction to her when she first spoke to him. I loved that he was the first person she trusted enough to speak to. I loved that they didn't just jump each other's bones right after that momentous occasion and that their relationship was allowed to progress slowly and naturally. There are so many scenes I loved between them--the pennies at the fountain, the ice cream date(s), the nights in the garage--all so perfectly crafted and sweet. 

But! Of course it couldn't stay sweet forever. Both Nastya and Josh had too many hard edges to smooth out and so this last 50% contained the bumps and scrapes borne out of the hardships of the burdens they were living with. The break up was agonizing to read. The pain and hurt and self destruction. It still hurts and I KNOW it ends up okay. That's how good the writing in this book is!

In addition to the love story of Nastya and Josh, we also learn more about Drew and Tierney and why those two have a love/hate, love to hate relationship. I wish THAT could be explored in a book (HINT, HINT Katja!). Clay also shows up and it's through a day with him that Nastya begins the roller-coaster ride to healing. 

Here's how I came up with my 5 stars:

1) The writing was phenomenal. PHEN-OM-ENAL. I re-read so many novels with my students during the school year that it says something, I think, that I would willingly re-read this novel just a few months after I'd first read it. I knew that the writing was good. I enjoyed it the first time and the second time, it was just as sharp. The pacing, the character development, the dialogue, and the plot were all puzzle pieces that fit together so well you couldn't see the individual pieces--just the resulting product. The first time I read this novel I did the silent cry. The streams of tears. I don't do that often...like never. I did for this novel. 

2) Nastya and Josh. They were broken but the were able to rebuild themselves. They were still rebuilding themselves at the end and I liked that they weren't perfect. I liked the mess and the hope that they could start finding themselves together and the promise of what that held for them. I also liked that it was so open at the end...no epilogue 5 years later, no bow on the package...just a hope and desire (on my part) that they would find a way to navigate the world together.

3) The story. It wasn't just a romance. It wasn't just about self-discovery. It wasn't just about the mystery of Nastya. It wasn't just about the power of friends and family. It was all of things, plus some. It explored ideas about forgiveness and trust and hope and grief and love. 

4) The final line:: "your garage" . It gets me. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Perfection. The hints about this line were given on Nastya's first run when she finds herself standing there. I remember thinking...why is she so hung up on this garage. Why the niggling thought that kept pestering her? Well, Katja Millay, you blew me away with the answer. 

***5 Stars***

Girl....how in the heck do you expect me to follow that!! So I'll say...What she said...*Throws down the mic*...

Just kidding! But really...

The last half of this book did go so fast. Which would explain why I stayed up half the night to finish it because I just could not stop. The pacing was incredible. Like you said they didn't rush things physically, and really didn't rush things emotionally either. When she spoke I think I about had a heart attack along with Josh. My favorite moments are Josh's thoughts while he's trying to figure out why Nastya sits in his garage every night. He tries really, really hard to get her out of there for sure. All of the examples you just gave with the pennies, ice cream, sitting in his garage are all reasons why no one would be able to help falling in love with Josh. But this story is not as simple as that. At all. 

Then omigah! Bring. On. The. Angst. Not that it isn't fairly angsty from the get go, but it really fires up. Nastya does her usual pushing everyone else away thing, which sets other events in motion. I really, really wanted to be mad at Josh. But then I  remembered that it was all Nastya's freaking fault that things went down the tube. Fantasies of shaking her like a rag doll to "wake up" and see what is in front of her instead of behind her ensued. I hated myself for it. Yeah. 

Drew and Josh and Clay, a little bit Tierney, and a lot Drew's Mom really help Nastya along her journey. They are great friends, but like all normal teenagers they make mistakes and have to learn from and live with them. The secondary parts of the story were just as intriguing as the main one and made me laugh and even cry and pray that Katja might someday give us a few more scenes from maybe their point of view. 

Okay...I gave this story 5 stars, and it has made it's way onto my "favorite books in my entire life" list. I don't do that easily, and trust me I have read and loved a LOT of books, but there was something about this one that was utterly breathtaking, moving, tragic, yet again so beautiful I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for days. I really just fell in love with this broken boy (Josh) who had to accept the cruelty of fate at such an early age. I hated how everyone regarded him (avoided him) but thought it was amazing how both he and Nastya are mature enough to realize the power of their words. Josh mentions several times that Nastya doesn't ever waste her words. I hadn't thought about this much before and haven't been able to stop since. Her physical wounds (that we figure out from all of her slow, subtle clues and know something bad happened to her) pass away, but the power of words can change things forever. She is holding in her words, but to what end and what cost? I admired how they would rather uphold an uncomfortable silence than say something they don't mean or push through said awkward silence with the hard questions that most people don't really want the answer to and aren't brave enough to ask. I really cannot follow up Shelley's "official" review any better than she did, so I will just stop here! My one final thought is now that it is over, I finally see all of the clues that led us to that final line. And it blew. my. mind. 

READ ALONG: THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY BY KATJA MILLAY PART I

I've been singing the praises of this book to anyone who will hear me. It's definitely high on my list of all time favorites..and I LOVE that I can suggest it to my senior students who like to read outside of what I assign for class. So, you can imagine my excitement when Courtney was looking for something to read. As we began this read along it took a lot of willpower to give her 'non-answers' to her questions, but I didn't want to spoil any part of this story for her. I wanted her to have the same, unspoiled, beautiful experience that I did. I could keep on gushing about all of the wonderful in this book...but let's get to the first 50%...

The first time I read this novel I was a bit hesitant. I am surrounded by high school students all day (I'm a high school English teacher)...and there is ALWAYS angst and drama. Sooooo I told myself I'd read the sample pages of what I'd downloaded and decide if I wanted to submerge myself into high school angst on my time off. Well, after reading the prologue I hit the "buy it now" button on Amazon and settled in for the journey.

In the first 50% we know that Nastya doesn't talk, she lives with her aunt, she dresses like a "profanity spewing guttersnipe", she runs so that she can sleep, she journals with an OCD- type consistency, she's an amazing baker, and the two people she 'befriends' are Josh and Drew. It's what we don't know that is intriguing. We are given a bread trail of crumbs...teeny tiny crumbs of answers to the questions that plague us. What happened to her? Why did it happen? Who did it? 

In this first 50% we also get to know Josh. Nastya describes him as having a force field around him that keeps people from approaching him. He's settled in his life, accepting of his loss, and trying just to live in that force field.  He leads a fairly solitary existence (with the exception Drew's family) until Nastya shows up. 

By the time you get to the end of the first 50% the questions are still there. Unanswered. The questions are the subtext; they hover on every page and in all of the unsaid things. Not having the answers should have been agonizing, but I found the journey to figuring it all out to be wonderful.

 Katja Millay is an absolutely superb writer. The characters are rich, the dialogue is exactly what you would expect spewing from many  high school students' mouths (and it's funny, and sad, and angry, and just perfect), and the unraveling of the story is wonderfully paced--no rushing, no dragging. 

I cannot wait until we write about the last half of this book. Warning...there will be spoilers...no way around it. Until next time...

I had saw a few things here and there last year about this book, mostly being how heart wrenching it was and I put it off for a long, long time. I regret that now, but I am so glad we decided to do this read along so that I had you as a sounding board when things got intense! I begged and begged for you to give me hints, but being the amazing book soulmate that you are you knew when to help me out, and when to tell me "hhmmm" which I think is code for suck it up and keep reading! 

So...my goal is to keep this read along as spoiler free as possible, so there will probably be a lot of OMG and WHAT throughout. I say this because it is truly THE MOST compelling, well-written, beautiful, tragic but romantic story I have read in a long time, or maybe ever. I have put it on my list of all-time favorite reads, which is actually a pretty short list (mostly just containing Harry Potter). So, on to the first 50% of TSoT....

The prologue itself was intense. Who knew that 5 sentences would have the power to create like 50 questions! For a long time, things seem fairly normal. You don't know why Nastya is going back to school for her senior year after being home schooled for the last two, or what could be going on with the doctor's notes for the principal. All is well. We get our first glimpses of Drew, and don't really know which way he's going to go on the scale of good guy to douche bag. I adore stories that have both main characters point of views that alternate, so here we get to meet Josh BEFORE Nastya does. Which I felt was a good thing, and  majorly expanded TSoT because Nastya sure isn't giving anything away. 

So the game changer for me almost immediately was the fact that NASTYA DOESN'T TALK. Outloud that is. Her thoughts are glaringly blunt and honest, but she doesn't say a word to other people, ever. Talk about an original idea. At 7% I was wondering how is all of this going to go, because the main character not speaking a syllable to another person started the cacophony of OMG and WHAT!

The day to day stuff, with the running and classes and players at school was very realistic to teenage life (well, except for her practically trying to outrun hell running like she does) but was perfectly balanced to not drive me crazy. (You being WITH teenagers all day long makes us have very different reasons for this being an issue!) It also doesn't stray to far into the realm of impossibility either, and be "too smart" if you will for the age of the characters. It was interesting to witness how each character developed from going to not knowing each other, how they notice one another, and start to intertwine their lives together. This was without adding too much and bogging down the story and uh, the writing was incredible! I usually don't think to much about this, by thinking well who am I to judge their writing style? But, I feel like I have come to be able to recognize GREAT writing when it practically slaps me in the face! Katja hit a home run with this novel, and made me fall in absolute loooovvveeee with Nastya, Josh, and Drew from the start.

I'll shut up now, but want to say the first 50% did definitely dole out as little information as possible from Nastya but focused more, to me anyways, on the "building" side of things. Building their routines, building trust, and definitely building furniture! There were so many funny moments, with Nastya busting Drew's balls every time she got the chance (can't let his ego get too fresh) and her with the ice cream made me LOL!
  

READ ALONG: GONE GIRL BY GILLIAN FLYNN PART IV AND FINAL THOUGHTS

If you are following a long with us, welcome back. Today will take us through to the end of Gone Girl! Finally! If you are new to this Read Along, you can find Part I here, Part II here, and Part III here.

**Spoilers Ahead**

**Shelley**

I think this last section was the fastest, as far as the speed of reading it went. I stayed up until 3 AM because I could not put it down.

Crazy Amy (my new name for her) continued to ride on the crazy train in this last section. I'll give her credit--she was tenacious and could stick to a plan. She even managed to dupe Desi into helping her continue her evil deception using her wily ways. I'm not gonna lie though, one my favorite parts was how he managed to get the upper hand on her. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her squirm.

How the heck she ends up back in her home, with Nick, relatively unscathed is still somewhat of a mystery to me. I mean, really??!! She ends up in her house....with Nick! Whaat??!!!

And Nick. Ugh. I really wanted him to fight and win. How dare she get away with this--he's stuck with crazy Amy and his reputation is forever sullied by her trickery. What a miserable existence. I pictured him as feeling fairly emasculated at the end.

This last 25% of the novel answered all of my questions and tied up loose ends but I was still left feeling unsatisfied at the end.

So here's my official review:

3.75 stars (can I even do that?--yes, I can!) Here's why:

1) I loved the premise, the mystery, the thriller-ness of this novel. I liked all the guess work and predictions I had to ponder as we read. I loved it when my instincts were right and when I was wrong--well, Flynn's ideas were even better than anything I could've cooked up. How does she even think up this stuff?

2) The characters. Flynn did a fantastic job of writing round and dynamic characters. I knew them. I understood them. My hand slapped to my forehead so many times out of frustration or anxiety or amazement that I'm surprised I don't have permanent marks. Amy and Nick: I loved them, hated them, and loved to hate them.

3) The writing. I had a love/hate relationship with the writing. There were pages that flew at warp speed and I enjoyed every word, every sentence, every punctuation mark (see #2). Then there were pages that felt bogged down and drawn out. I know, now, that those words and pages needed to be there but at the time they appeared to be so unnecessary.Sometimes it seemed like it took hours to go 1% on my Kindle. I'm not sure why. I'm sure it was probably me.

4) The ending. I guess I wanted something more unrealistic but satisfactory. I wanted Nick to stick it to her...to be all "in your face, Amy" and then send her ass to jail. Instead,  Amy got her way and Nick somehow learned to deal with it. Instead of her reaping consequences, I got Amy's smug last lines. To Flynn's credit, her great writing ability made me abhor Amy and so I had a hard time with that ending.

If you have time and (at the beginning) patience, I'd recommend this book. I'm glad I read it. What about you, Courtney?

**Courtney**

Shel, I agree that the last section flew by. Even though it was somewhat short, at this point you are probably devouring it if you are like me, because you want to find out how the whole train wreck will end! 

Nick has a few epic thoughts in this section that I was quite fond of. The summary of one is "Come home to me, come home to me so I can kill you." That was paraphrased, but I bet you can figure out what I left out of the middle! Actually, with my not so subtle clues you did figure it out!

I couldn't believe that she once again turned things around and manipulated the situation to be in her favor. If anyone in this story deserved a break for once, it definitely wasn't her. I was hoping she would be stuck with Desi until the end of time, but of course that didn't happen. 

When I reached the end, I kid you not, I just sat stunned for at least five minutes. I still cannot believe how it turned out. I wanted Nick to find a way to prove everything she did so badly. I wasn't so put off by the ending after I processed for a while because while she thinks she got the last word when all was said and done, Nick really did by saying "I feel sorry for you, because you have to wake up everyday and be you." For me...That. Was. Epic. He can't kill her, he can't leave her, but I still love the fact that he goes right on surprising her and showing her that she can't bend and control people to her will. I think that might be the only poetic justice to be found, because apparently they were made for each other, and are going to suffer forever because of it. 

I feel the most sad for Go. I don't think her relationship with her brother will ever be the same, and she was drug through the mud along with the rest of them but got absolutely nothing out of it. That reality just sucks. 

My official review: 

5 Stars (You're probably thinking I'm crazy! but that is what makes this whole thing so great!) 

1) The premise. I really was fascinated by the blurb for this book. And it is set in Missouri. Being a Arkansas born/Missouri living girl, that is really all I needed. But I was sad it wasn't the Carthage that is about an 1 1/2 away. Thrillers suck me in and make me very emotional and feel it physically that I am DYING to know what is going to happen next. It is hard for me to not love a well-written suspense. 

2) The characters. The people in this book really feel real. (This could be because of real life murders, but who knows. Anybody think at any time the words: Scot Peterson? Yes? Okay! 

3) The writing. While I did quit at 17 pages because I was not getting the writing, after that it was just on for me. The story was weaved so intricately, with all sorts of things interconnected it was just amazing. I mean, for it to end up with the bad girl to have the case sewn up so tight with a bow you can't break it like you're at a wedding shower, that had to have taken a lot of thought. 

4) The ending. It took me a while to process. I was dazed and confused. I was stunned. I was thinking, "This can't be how this ends." But as I am finding lately with books I am reading, I am okay with the not so picture perfect ending because it is real. While I wanted her to get her karma so badly by her being caught and put in jail, this not so happily ever after will have to do. Maybe it will be her own kind of purgatory, and it will be worse than what I wanted since Nick knows everything and hates her, her parents are again making money off of her (after they took everything from her) and she now has to raise a child (That poor kid, hope Nick is in charge of this). Oh, and she is still stuck in Missouri. We all know how much she loves that! 

I haven't read a book that made me think like this in a crime drama since James Patterson's Along Came a Spider. I don't read a lot of it anymore, but when I do it is super crazy thrilling to me since we also all know how much I stink at figuring out who the bad guy is!! 

Hope everyone enjoyed these posts as much as we did! And were able to have some motivation to read along with us! It was a lot of fun, and we will be looking for the next book to look at piece by piece! Thanks for joining us.

READ ALONG: GONE GIRL BY GILLIAN FLYNN PART III

If you are following a long with us, welcome back. Today will take us through 75%. If you are new to this Read Along, you can find Part I here, and Part II here.

**Spoilers Ahead** Again, if you don't want to be spoiled DO NOT GO FORTH!

**Shelley**

Courtney. Girl. This section was cray cray (because grown up, articulate sounding words just will not do the insanity of this section justice, IMHO).

So, Part Two: Boy Meets Girl starts with Amy. Precious little Amy. The Amy I felt so very sorry for. Crazy, Psycho, Nut-Job Amy. I think my exact text to you, Courtney, was "so...she's a cray cray liar??!!!"  Yes. Yes she is.

There is this interesting running commentary Amy has about the "Cool Girl" and how that has ruined women and men and relationships, in general. There were so many parts of this conversation that struck me as bitter and silly--just be who YOU want to be, Amy!! But, I also (strangely?) found myself agreeing with some of the things she said about women who put on the farce of "Cool Girl" (or whatever kind of girl) just to snare a guy. Be who you are (AMY!--sheesh).

I found her story, in this part, to wax and wane. Her deviousness and her plan and what motivated it and how she carried it out fascinated me and I found those parts to be page turners. When she ranted about who she REALLY was versus the personality/personalities that she pretended to be, I felt like rolling my eyes and skimming over paragraphs--I didn't, but I wanted to. When her two new 'friends' at the cabin royally screwed her over I was intrigued to see exactly how she was going to worm her way out of those dire straits. I absolutely loved it when people didn't respond to her the way she wanted or expected them to. Let me just gloat for one second: I KNEW IT!!! I knew that Desi's story was off and the last few pages of this section confirmed that intuition. YES!!!

Nick. I'm so sorry I doubted you. Talk about having a complete change of heart--It took me one paragraph into part two to decide that Nick's cheating paled in comparison to Amy's twisted plot to ruin his life. The contents of the shed, the impending arrest, the REAL stories of the two people Amy had previously tried to screw over...all of these were little twists of the knife in his back. I didn't blame Amy's parents, the police, the community, his lawyers, and even Go to have doubts or suspicions about him due to all of his lies and I could see that Amy had set a perfect trap for him. He had some missteps along the way..but the small bit of redemption he receives from the interview at the bar scene felt soooo good. His parts were so quick to read and I couldn't wait to see what he was going to figure out or do next.

One more section to go! I cannot wait to see how all of this goes down. What did you think of this part, Courtney?

**Courtney**

Shelley, I do think I about died starting Part II of the book. You see, I was on a lake in a boat with my husband fishing with very little phone service, and you were in a car driving not able to use any electronics. I frantically  had to sign into Twitter on my husband's phone just to at least message someone who would understand (You & Alessandra in this case!) to find later and I think an actual text to you was "What the ever loving ..... just happened?" (A side note here is yes, it is not fair that my husband's phone has service when mine doesn't and I am desperate...thank you for your sympathy!) 

I was in utter shock that at 50% Gillian Flynn actually let us all in on what the heck was really happening. We got soo little for soooooo long. Amy, psycho, psycho, psycho, psycho. (I'm starting to sound like Nick's father, just more censored!) I couldn't even form complete sentences. I don't really know what I envisioned happening, but that definitely wasn't it. I mean hell, I really thought Nick's father was going to play more of a part, but obviously that's exactly what Flynn was going for. 

I really got a kick out of her backwoods Ozarks adventure (since I live there, well not in the backwoods, but you get what I mean...maybe). She was seriously hung up on how different and unpretty and just average she looked with her disguise. You will see through all of the crazy thoughts this woman has that because of Amazing Amy, she honest to God has never had reason to doubt her self image or esteem. She "knew" she was amazing. Apparently in this case, just because everyone said it, it definitely must be true...just like the Internet! 

Wasn't it amazing how we were able to flip the switch to being back on Team Nick. He's a dirt bag, I mean Andie was 22 to his 33 when they started dating. Not all that great of a margin in the grand scheme of things, but his wife was 4 years OLDER than him. Low blow if you ask me. I really didn't want him to be the killer, which I didn't think he was because wouldn't that just be too obvious for him to have done it. I am going to use the word shocked a lot, but I was basically shocked at how elaborate her plan was from the MINUTE after she found out Nick was cheating on her. Ironically, she saw him the very first time he stepped out on her, but maybe if she hadn't went totally bat shit crazy she could have changed things around. BUT since we've already discussed their lack of communication skills and her inability to be her everyday psycho killer self, well here we are. 

I was heartbroken by Nick and Go's seeming demise. They are twins, and that twin bond is unbreakable. I think Go was genuinely heartbroken by all of the things that Nick never confided in her since she thought they shared everything. Another theme of the story, obviously, is do we ever really know everything about the people we're closest too? Dun, dun, dun. 

The interviews were great. Nick finally stepped up and started acting normal. I think an angel choir started singing when this happened. This was funny to me also because Amy was so sure that everything she was doing was going to make Nick putty in her hand, but he did the exact same thing to her. She is inevitably itching to go home because she genuinely believes him to be in love with her, and that is all she ever really wanted. 

READ ALONG: GONE GIRL BY GILLIAN FLYNN PART II

If you are following a long with us, welcome back. Today will take us through 50% or finishing out Part I: Boy Loses Girl of the story. If you are new to this Read Along, you can find Part I here.

**Spoilers Ahead**

***Courtney***

Oh my goodness, Shelley! I would say I regret putting this book down after only 17 pages a couple of months ago, but I don't, because I am 100% enjoying reading it with you right now.

How are we going to get through this with no spoilers! I really don't think we can, so I will say now...if you have not read this book through either the end of Part I: Boy Loses Girl, or 50% in your e-book...for all that is holy...DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER! Back away...don't look! You will regret it.







Anyways...we start back with Nick at three days gone. He is still acting weird with the police, and has finally started looking into the clues again for the scavenger hunt. This takes him on a journey out of town, and he doesn't realize until it is too late that this only incriminated him further. Duh! Why is it criminals can't help themselves but not stay put at home and do stupid things! Nick! People think you killed your wife..don't act like a psycho weirdo. They'll still think you murdered your wife. I'm waffling on whether or not I like/believe him.

We finally get a little information on what Amy was up to before she disappeared when Nick, Rand and some other volunteers go to question the homeless men living at the abandoned mall. Another jaw-dropper end of a chapter if you ask me, that was. I'm starting to get feelings of "Okay, I think this happened!! That has to be it!" and then you send me a DM like "OMG you will not believe what she went to buy..." I really need to stop guessing what is going to happen! I'm always wrong!

Amy continues detailing their life, but now her diary is including their move to Missouri. Nick has some really, really jerk moments like where he dotes on a person he claims not to like, leaving his wife out of the loop..like always. I genuinely started to feel sorry for her at this point I think. It isn't all her fault, to me, that her husband is emotionally unavailable. Why, why, why do these supposedly mature/brilliant/intellectual thirty something's not freaking communicate!

I really like when Nick loses his cool a little bit and we finally start to see some genuine emotions from him, whether in his thoughts, or when he is on the phone with the alarm company trying to discover a clue. Her notes are also pulling at his heart strings, and clue him in FINALLY to the total ass he has been all along. He knew it, I guess, but didn't really try. Cryptic thoughts - still check those off left and right.

The disposable phone. We finally found out who THAT belonged too, and ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!! Nick, I hate you right now. I really do.

Amy really redeems herself a little bit more by taking care of Nick's mom up until she passes away from cancer. I honestly didn't think she'd do it, but she spent a lot of time with her.

I was crazy surprised by how many bombs were dropped in this section. The last "chapter"....@$%#!$%#$%@#^.....ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!! GAME ON!! I shall stop now, take a few much needed deep breathes, and let you take over!!!

**Shelley**

Courtney,  I don't even ...how?!...what?!...Oh MY Goodness Gracious. (I think that these are the words that were on repeat in my brain for this section.) 

After reading the first 25% I was pretty frustrated with Nick and Amy. They were both guilty of withholding their real thoughts and cares and worries with each other. Embarking on this next 25%, I once again I found myself wanting to grab these characters by the shoulders and shake them: JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER, for heavens sake! Sheesh. 

Amy is beginning to endear herself to me. She's not the cold New Yorker, she's the caring daughter-in-law. She's taking on the hardships that caring for Nick's mom entails and trying to avoid involvement in confrontations with his father. Now, don't get me wrong, Amy's no saint. She doesn't always seem to understand the culture she's found herself in and her observations, while honest, hint at a bit of her being a little above the middle-America fray. However, she appears to be willing to do what it takes to help out and show Nick that she can adapt to her new life. In this section I am finding myself more sympathetic to her plight. She feels him withdrawing and I find myself hating him, for her! There are more rough days than smooth ones. She's forgiving things that should be unforgivable. And her sweet treasure hunt... her desire to try to recapture what they lost even despite his awfulness...Then the pregnancy. OH GOD...NICK what have you done?????!!!!

Nick, I want to throttle you. I want to call you every awful name that I can...and if anyone read the texts I sent to Courtney you'd see that I actually DID call him every name I could. What a scumbag. I knew that disposable phone thing was suspicious! Ugh. And then when he begins tracking down the rest of the clues and begins to love his WIFE again...really, Nick?!!! You want to have your cake and eat it too?!!! The thing is...I hate that he cheated and he's obviously a liar, but some of his reactions to the veiled accusations, the suspicions, the questions point to him being not completely guilty. There are points when the cops begin questioning him that his panicky reaction seems to be less guilt-riddled and more genuinely surprised. When he decides to lawyer up at the end and he realizes that he's been such a prick to his wife, I actually felt bad for him.

Here are my questions:

He keeps having these rage-filled, bloody thoughts of her--did he do it? He said he was a big fan of the 'lie of omission---Whaaaat???!!!

Why do they keep asking him if Amy is a size 2?

Why didn't Nick know about Amy's life outside of the home--is he that clueless?

That Desi character and his mom--something about that entire situation seems off?

Why is still seeing his mistress? Bad move, Nick!!!

Something is bothering me about Amy...something doesn't ring true by the end of this section. Is she leaving something out?

What in the heck does he see at the end of Part I? 

What happened to Amy?

I cannot wait to see what happens next! Happy Reading!


    

**Read along! Let us know what you think! We'll be back at about 75% for another **PAUSE** in the story for some more reflection. Maybe you'll be sending some "WHOA!" messages too!