Sunday Book Club: Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale

Another book review; this book, “Everything We Keep” by Kerry Lonsdale kept popping up on my Kindle store as a recommended book for me so I thought I would just give it a try. It was a pretty quick read – I finished it in half a day. But that was mainly because I really hated the story and wanted to get it over with so that I could return the book. I very rarely return books on Kindle; I like to read and re-read the same books after awhile because I find the second read to be more relaxing and sometimes more fun.

**This review consists of Spoilers

It’s been quite a while that I’ve read such a terribly written book. The characters were really difficult to like or relate to and just simply annoying. Aimee, the main character, appears to be really stupid and a total imbecile if she lived her life not bothering to find out what was going on in the life of her fiancee given that she’s about to marry him and basically grew up knowing and dating him. Can a person really be so oblivious?

It starts off fine. Aimee is a sous chef at her parent’s little restaurant and her fiance James recently died on a fishing trip, so instead of their wedding, they are having his funeral at the same church on the same day. But Aimee never got the chance to see the body. Then Lacy, who is some spiritual advisor, appears and claims that James is still alive. The book then quickly spins downhill from here on. James’ brother gave her a large cheque, claiming that if they were married the money would have gone to her anyway.

Aimee tries to move on; a year on she opened her own cafe and met a guy named Ian that she can’t date because she can’t let go of James. Then one day Lacy appeared again and gave her a picture of an art piece that looks like what James used to make, so Aimee decided to go to Mexico to find him, with Ian in tow because Ian is so in love with her.

Long story cut short, she found James, who thinks he is Carlos, because he has some dissociative fugue which makes him totally forget his past as James. His brother Thomas bought off everyone who knew that James is Carlos, to protect him from Phil, his other bastard brother (born from the same mother with her brother). Phil was evil and tried to bring down their family business by doing some illegal money laundering.

Seriously, this story screamed the lack of serious research. I think the author came upon the word ‘dissociative fugue’ and decided that it would make a good story because it will make the story sound plausible, but it is not. The book was also very slow in pace; I waited for half the book for any hint of a plot to pop up but unfortunately when it did, it was a very thin and lame plot. The part that really pissed me off was the ending when Carlos woke up one day and totally forgot he was Carlos and was back to James. Please.

The characters are so annoying. As mentioned, Aimee appears to be an incredibly stupid woman who is mopey and clueless. I also felt like the author tried so hard to make Ian a likeable and cool guy, but it just comes off as really fake. The worst part was all the dialogues, particularly between Aimee and Ian – I can’t imagine anyone talking like that.

Final Thoughts

I shall end my rant here. As you can see, I was really upset about having read this book and I really rarely get pissed off at books. I would highly recommend everyone to stay away from this terrible piece of garbage.