drey's library

I am in awe. Sarah Pekkanen's Skipping a Beat is masterfully written, and I couldn't help but be touched, moved, engrossed... Julia and Michael are teenagers when they first meet and fall in love with each other. Both have baggage. Both are trying to escape their realities. Both find someone who understands where they're coming from, and why they want to go where they want to go...Fast forward to the present day. Julia and Michael have left their childhood behind, gotten married, and built successful careers. Both have also let that success pull them apart. But then both get a second chance. Will they take it?Character: I wasn't sure I liked Julia at first. Other than the flashback scene in Chapter Two, she was just another rich woman more involved in her own life, than someone who really cared what happened to her husband. It was all "what about me?"... Blaming her insecurities on her husband and her suspicions that he'd had an affair--it was too easy to do, you know what I mean? Where's your own culpability? But then as she and Michael finally start talking to each other again, I realized that Julia is just like any other woman out there. She's smart and strong, but her weak point is Michael, and she'd turned the other way instead of facing their issues head on, because she's afraid that confrontation would lead to his leaving her. Oh, the things we'd re-do if we had only known, huh?Pace & Plot: Skipping a Beat isn't too slow- or too fast-paced, it moves at just the right speed for you to get into the story and feel like you know Julia and Michael. The story starts off kind of harsh (only a teensy bit), and mellows as you get further along. Warning--you should be ready with a tissue or two by the time you get to the end...