Review: Slip of the Tongue

Slip of the Tongue by Jessica Hawkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Romance is these stolen moments to ourselves.

I've waited a week or more to write this review. I still have a hard time forming the sentences that need to be formed to write this review. I don't know where to begin. This isn't the kind of book you can just breeze through and come out the other side unfazed. No. This is the kind of book that leaves you wanting more. You want to know the whys and the hows. You want to know how this woman--who you've never met--can write your story so completely and so thoroughly that you're almost certain she spied on your life and then changed the details in order to write this book. This is the book I wish I could write. This is my story.

But it's not. Not really. This is a story of fiction written by a woman I've only had the pleasure of meeting one time--briefly--when I was halfway through this story. So, the book was already out there. She couldn't have possibly known this was my story.

Sadie is married to the man of her dreams. He is perfect for her. So why does she find herself spending more and more time with the guy next door?
Nathan, Sadie's husband, is struggling with something. Something he isn't sharing with Sadie. He keeps pushing her and pushing her, but he refuses to open up to her.
Finn, the neighbor, is there with an open ear and a shoulder to lean on. It's not immediate, this opening up of Sadie's problems, but it does happen.

It was as if I stumbled on a pebble and slipped down the side of a cliff

And that's how it happens, isn't it? It starts slow and innocent. A few words here, a story there, the exchange of dreams and desires and troubles. It starts slow and innocent. But it becomes so much more.
All of a sudden, Finn is there to dry Sadie's tears, Finn is there to hold her close, and Finn is there when it all falls apart with Nathan. Finn. Is. There.

"If you can't do this, I will," he says. "I'll make this decision for us. When you hurt tomorrow, physically or emotionally...when you question what we did...when you ache to do it again--I'll take the blame for all of it, Sadie."

I made it through this entire book not knowing how it would end. I won't give that away here either. What you need to know is that this book is passionate and loving and heartbreaking. It is everything you've ever felt while in a real relationship. It is the ups and the downs and the in-betweens. It is the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is all encompassing.

"Part of me will always love part of him. Those parts are distant memories, but they're there. I suppose those wounds'll be fresh tonight."

Our magic is what could be, and a fresh start can be as alluring as a good memory.

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