Bobbi Reed

*SPOILER ALERT*

It says something to this author’s skill that this book was able to fill me with so much anxiety so consistently. I’m certain that Almost Always reads very differently depending on the reader’s place in life. For me, I’m in my early 30s and don’t yet have that baby-countdown-clock running in my head. And Eva’s behavior, especially in the beginning, was horrifying to me. The fact that everything actually, somehow, turns out pretty well didn’t feel like justification for Eva’s decisions so much as it felt like tumbling down a flight of stairs and miraculously landing on your feet. You give a big sigh of relief when you realize you’re OK, but every nanosecond of the fall was filled with the tension of trying to avoid breaking your neck.

Every character in this book felt real and well developed, even seeing them through Eva’s judgmental eyes. You even realize that some of them are just indulging her, even though she doesn’t seem to see it. Eva’s certainly the protagonist of her own story, and those people aren’t always fun to hang out with. By the end, Eva does mellow out a bit, although I’m not entirely sure she’s learned her lesson. Then again, it would be unrealistic for her to change dramatically, when she has clearly lived her whole life meddling in and judging other people’s affairs. But she does evolve, as do those around her, and you really do get to see the good-hearted intentions that she had all along.… (meer)

I will admit that I bought this because I loved the cover. But then I started reading and stayed up late into the night to finish it. You will too.

Eva is a meddler, a kind hearted one, but a meddler. Life would just run so much easier for everyone if they did what Eva thinks they should. But then Eva meets Cecelia, a pregnant teenager who is thinking of giving up her baby for adoption. What starts out as a possible way for Eva to get a baby for her own daughter Shelly (who can't have children), turns into a much more complicated situation.

Of course this is not the only thing going on in Eva's life. Add in Darlene the elderly neighbor with health issues across the street and the young couple next door who are having their own problems. Shelly who never related well to her mother, Cecelia's own dysfunctional family and John, Eva's recently retired husband who has decided to take up the hobby of building gingerbread houses (certainly not one of the manly past times Eva tried to get him involved in.). All of which start the snowball affect toward one of those epiphany moments for Eva and all those around her.

This is a sweet, heart touching story that proves that life rarely turns out the way we plan - and most of us wouldn't have it any other way.… (meer)

The narrator of Almost Always is a fiftyish woman named Eva who likes to fix up other peoples’ lives. Well-intentioned but nosy, she eavesdrops on a teenage girl talking about her unwanted pregnancy to a friend while having breakfast at a local diner. Easily she enters their conversation, and engages them in a casual dialog about babies and family and future. Eva puts forward the fact that her own daughter, Shelly, cannot have a child though desperately wanting to have one. The girls react somewhat uncomfortably, but Eva is not one to note discomfort as reason to stop meddling. She leaves the girl her name and number on a napkin, and heads home with a plan in mind.

Eva’s family includes her husband John, a retired police officer who enjoys experimenting in the kitchen and otherwise irritating his orderly wife by leaving dishes in the sink, taking up unusual hobbies and puttering around the house. Despite their minor disagreements, they do appear to love each other and John speaks to his wife gently, yet honestly when she announces that the teenage stranger, Cecelia, is going to give her baby to their daughter and son-in-law for adoption. Undeterred, Eva tracks down the unknowing Cecelia, and states her intention to help her along with her pregnancy in order to secure a baby for her daughter. In the meantime, Eva’s daughter has no idea what is going on, and when she does approach her daughter with the plan, she doesn’t immediately hear the reaction for which she had hoped. Not much time goes by, however, before Shelly, too, accepts the idea that this baby is meant to be hers.

The flow of Almost Always is approachable and the characters are interesting, in particular the creative character who is Eva’s husband John. The author has crafted a family who truly cares about one another. But the overall prospect of the novel is at first hard to believe. At no time does anyone in Eva’s family question the legality or other complications that an open adoption such as the one they are pursuing may experience. Eventually they hire an attorney to handle the adoption, but it seems too easy, the way Eva’s meddling appears to have no unintended consequences.

Toward the end of the story, however, Eva’s role in her family and neighbor’s lives takes a darker turn. Tension builds as Eva questions whether or not she is making the right decisions by interfering in others’ lives, and the biggest question is whether or not Cecelia’s baby will be given to her daughter. By emphasizing that which is beyond Eva’s control, the reader is drawn back into the story and must wait, patiently, for the somewhat painful and surprising end.… (meer)