Review: Reconcilable Differences by M.A. Clarke Scott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Release: August 28, 2016
Length: 352 pages

Kate is a survivor.

Fifteen years after her breakdown, Kate has built a successful career as a family mediator, specializing in couple’s reconciliation. In fact, she’s about to receive a prestigious award for her accomplishments.

Her latest mediation brings together a young couple on the brink of divorce, and only Kate’s expertise and sensitivity can save them. It also, unexpectedly, reconnects her with former lover Simon Sharpe, who represents the high and the low points of her life, uncomfortably forcing her to revisit her difficult and painful past.

Still haunted by her unrequited love, Simon’s reemergence in Kate’s life exhumes memories of trauma and heartbreak, along with unwanted feelings of insecurity and self-doubt she believed were long resolved. As Simon and Kate steer their feuding, secretive clients towards reconciliation and navigate their confusing past, their own relationship reignites and takes them on an unexpected path.

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My Review

The setting is 1997 and truth be told, this story actually read like it was written in the 90s. From the movie references to the ways of thinking, it felt like I was in a time warp.

Kate was a successful mediator. She worked with couples who are contemplating or have filed for divorce. The story also centers around the couple she was currently working on, D'arcy and Eli. D'arcy's lawyer was a formidable shrew named Sharon, who at some point added the drama to this story. The "shock" was that Eli's lawyer was none other than Kate's greatest love, Simon. During it all, Kate and Simon renew their acquaintance and eventually fall in love (or in Kate's case, kept on loving).

As wonderfully written as this story was, I did have a huge problem with Kate. She was crazy. Like needs a therapist or two or five kinda crazy. She was literally all over the place and as the story was told entirely from her POV, there were many times that I had to put this book down to save my own sanity. I honestly felt like I was the one going nuts. She was 34 and completely delusional, irrational, immature and naive. She absolutely reeked of desperation and the way she acted at times was a bit pathetic. I kept waiting for someone to call her out on her nonsense. The one time her BFF did confront her (with passive-aggressiveness), Kate brushed it off because said friend's love life was nothing to write home about. But I was wondering where her family was? Why was her family allowing her to run wild with her lunacy? She convinced herself of so many things that weren't even reality! Anyway, she lacked any real support, which sucked.

All in all, a good 3.5 star read and a cute HFN.

Copy given in exchange for my honest review