THE DILEMMA

4 stars out of 5

Never mind that it gets in the way of all the other things I need to be doing - it's always a treat to find a book you just can't put down. I started this one late in the evening - but even after just a few chapters I was hooked enough to want to keep going. The next day, I raced through it straight to the end (well, okay, I stopped long enough to chow down a slice when the pizza my husband ordered for dinner arrived, but that's only because I didn't want to get grease marks on my Kindle).

Just as the title suggests, the plot involves a dilemma. So, too, does writing a review; there's not much that can be said without giving away secrets that are unveiled as the story moves along. Essentially, it's about married couple Livia and Adam, parents of grown, but still living at home, children Marnie and Josh. They got married years ago when Livia got pregnant and have stayed together despite the fact that her parents disowned her and didn't give her the lavish wedding they'd promised. Since then, Livia has dreamed - make that obsessed - about having a 40th birthday party to compensate for the dream wedding she never got. Adam and Josh are helping make sure no detail (or expense) is spared, while Marnie is sending email and FaceTime encouragement from her education-related stay in Hong Kong.

But of course, nothing is quite as it seems. Livia has learned something awful that she hasn't told Adam about - but plans to do so after her big party. Adam, too, has an awful secret - one that he, too, must share with Livia. He agonizes over when to break the news, knowing that doing it now will spoil what is to be the biggest day of her life. Chapters switch between the perspectives of Adam and Livia, as both learn new more about their "secrets" and then waffle between whether 'tis better to tell or not to tell.

The waffling, I must say, is what nearly lost me. I've got a thing for characters who are on the paranoid side and constantly second-guess themselves and everyone around them (put another way, they drive me bonkers). These two, who fluctuate between selfish and selfless, came close to crossing the line; but to the author's writing credit, their back-and-forths ended up making me read faster instead of my usual throwing in the towel. Same with melodrama - no shortage of it here, but the way it is written more often than not makes it far more riveting than off-putting.

Nothing left to say, then, except thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy. 

The Dilemma by B.A. Paris (St. Martin's Press, June 2020); 352 pp.