To have a housemate but not the kind you expected…

Synopsis

Cath Beckinsale is in a jam. She’s a single mum of three, with her 40th birthday in sight and a precarious hold on employment. And she can’t quite let go of her late husband Gaz, whose ashes are still in an urn on the kitchen table.

To make ends meet a student lodger seems like the perfect solution – after all, what’s one more child in the house? But when Dan flies in from the US, complete with guitar and chest hair on display, it’s immediately clear that he’s no teenager, but someone who quickly sends life in an unexpected direction.

My review

Cath Beckinsale is a single mum of three, trying to keep all the balls up in the air. With her fortieth birthday approaching, a job that isn’t giving her real satisfaction or stability, and finding it still difficult to let go of her late husband, Cath knows that things need to change. But how? And is she ready to make such changes?
With her oldest daughter leaving for college, the most sensible solution of having more money, is taking a student lodger in the house. But Dan from the States isn’t the teenager Cath expected him to be. And his arrival may be the start of a much needed change of direction… 

Purely based on the blurb, I had a totally different, lighter story in mind. I thought that sparks would fly around Cath and Dan, and then they would start something, having a hurdle somewhere to only end up together anyway. You know that kind of story… 

But this isn’t that kind of story, as while dan’s arrival may be the catalyst in many aspects, it isn’t actually a story about Cath finding someone to love after losing the love of her life. 

I have to say, that from the start, I admired Cath’s resilience and strength. Not only did she lose the man she deeply lost, but even beforehand life hasn’t been easy on this family. Yet Cath, even at the most darkest moments in her life, didn’t give up, or would have made any kind of different decision. 

And we also see a Cath that is a teacher in the real sense of the word. While having to fight against several obnoxious colleagues and having to face injustice towards herself, we see how committed she is towards the students. Just like teacher should be, Cath sees more to them than the ire situation some of them are in.
And she truly cares about them, even going lengths to show them their own capabilities. 

But we also see a woman struggling, because it isn’t easy to run a household on your own. The struggles are real, and while she can rely on friends and family for help, it’s not easy to run everything smoothly. 

Like I said earlier, with Dan’s arrival, Cath life stars to change, and it’s not because of the romantic involvement, but more because of Dan being a helping hand somehow.
A helping hand that started as Cath wanting to interest her students, turning her into an internet celebrity. 

And I couldn’t stop making comparisons with high school behaviour somehow. Because what Cath is going through once she is gaining online popularity, is so easily to be alike with all the drama we all faced when we were teenagers.  Even Cath’s behaviour can be linked to that of a teenager, wanting to keep that popularity, and forgetting about the real purpose and goal of it all. 

But we also see that Cath starts to realize that perhaps the time has come to move on, to stop having Gaz literally on the kitchen table. Cath also realizes that while even if she hasn’t had the time to actually grieve over the family’s loss, she isn’t the only one. 

For me this story is more about a woman’s journey, trying to be successful. Like explained in the book, being successful can mean so many different things. And it’s up to you to figure out which kind of successful you want to be, which kind of being successful truly matters.  

Now, I know that what I wrote makes it look like this is a very deep and heavy story. And it is, as it makes you stop and just think about your own life. But it is also very funny, as there were several moments that Cath put a smile on my face, even if some of those moments weren’t meant to be funny according to Cath.
Yet that is also something very recognizable, as Cath’s clumsiness and “ignorance” are something we can all relate to somehow. 

As a little point of critique, if I can call it that way, is that I perhaps would have loved to have more of Leanne in this book. She for sure is a force of nature and rather spot – on too! 

This book is filled with all kind of emotions. We see not only Cath, but all the characters going through the highs and lows of life. We see them struggling but also we see so much love and altruism. We see characters making the wrong decisions but also making the right decisions. We see them doubting but also adamant on making a change.
We see a journey taking place, a journey where things go easy, but also where things go difficult. But that’s also just how life goes…