The Long Way Home by Jasinda WilderMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Reviewed by: Michelle
ARC provided by author in exchange for an honest review
Since The Long Way Home is about a married couple who corresponds with each other through letters and emails while separated, I think it’s fitting that I write my thoughts in a letter format as well before I write a formal review. So here it goes.
Dear Jasinda,
Wow!!!! You took me by surprise with this book. I honestly was thinking this book would be your typical second chance romance but I was wrong. You made this book something else. Something more meaningful and real. This book held you hostage right off the opening pages and I was lost with your words as Christian and Ava’s story was so much more than a typical couple fighting but a story of their own personal struggles, demons and survival. This is a story that will resound to everyone who has ever felt pain, grief, resentment, loss, and love. So I just want to say thank you, Jasinda for your brutal honesty when it comes to love and pain.
Did I love this book? Absolutely.
Did this book break my heart? Of course.
Did I want to drown in your poetic and heartfelt prose? Without a doubt, yes.
So while I can go on and on and rave about this book, I won’t because it will just be a bunch of ramblings of how much I loved this book. So thank you, Jasinda. Thank you for Christian and Ava’s story. Thank you for giving your readers a glimpse of real heartbreak and real love. Thank you for bringing your readers home to a romance that is utterly raw, fragile, and beautiful.
Always a fan,
Michelle xo
The Long Way Home was one of the most brutally honest, real, heartbreaking, vulnerable emotional love stories that I had the pleasure of reading. Jasinda Wilder worked her literary magic with this book as she spellbound readers to Christian and Ava. They say there are two sides to every story and the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. And in The Long Way Home, Jasinda will allow her readers to hear the two sides.
Now that he is gone, I have lost those things, and I have lost you, and thus I have lost myself. I’m sorry, Ava. I wish I had the strength to go on, but I don’t. Goodbye. ”They say home is where the heart is. But what happens when the heart of a marriage starts to crumble right before your eyes when the death of Christian and Ava’s baby, Henry destroyed them. Broke them. Made them feel empty and have resentment towards each other. Can a couple who loved each other so fiercely ever find and piece back that love or will their sorrow and anger drown them pushing them further apart from each other? What happens when one of them leaves?
Christian loves Ava with all his heart. She was the only one that belonged there. She was his life. His muse. His everything but when Henry died, Ava's sprint died as well. She became the shell of a woman. She distanced herself from Christian. She didn’t talk to him. She made him feel unwanted. She rather drink her pain and sorrow away than look at him.
I am angry with you, Ava. So very angry. You lost Henry the same as I did, but you claimed all the grief for yourself, leaving none for me.”Ava loves Christian. He was her first love. He was her provider. Her lover. Her best friend. He was her heart but the death of their son, destroyed her. She was a mother but with no child. She felt empty and blamed God for taking away their baby. She didn’t know how to deal with her grief because a part of her life was gone and so she dealt with her pain by distancing herself from the outside world. Like Christian, she drowned her pain in alcohol.
When Christian finally had enough of the silence and emptiness, he decided that it was best for him to get away. And so he left Ava. If he didn’t leave, he knew that he would resent and begin to hate Ava. And so Christian bought a sailboat to find peace and home.
Christian remains behind her, clinging to her. Breathing her scent. Begging her— silently now— to respond, to turn to him, literally and metaphorically—for comfort. But there is only silence.”While readers may automatically jump on the bandwagon and say Christian is awful for leaving his wife in her time of need, please don’t do it. Like I said there are two sides to every story, and so begins the real heart of this book as Christian and Ava navigate the storms of their marriage and their love for each other.
The beauty of The Long Way Home is the unfiltered and raw vulnerability of Christian and Ava. These two were far beyond perfect. They were real characters who felt love, loss, hurt, anger, and bled. They wore their heart and emotions on their sleeve. They didn’t hesitate to let each other know how they felt for each other. They loved each other but at the same time didn’t know how to repair the cracks of their marriage. The writing was phenomenal.The story was utterly raw and visceral. The characters were the heart and soul of this book. And Jasinda Wilder’s words was food for your soul.
We’ve both been altered by this, Ava. I accept the blame that is due to me. But it’s not all mine. You don’t deserve this; I don’t deserve this; we don’t deserve this, as a couple. But yet it’s what has been placed upon us, and I think we’ve made a hell of a mess of it.”All I can say go read this book. It was breathtaking, devastatingly beautiful and heartfelt. The truth hurts and I love that Jasinda allowed us to see that the truth of the matter was that no one was to blame. Things just happened that was beyond their control but what Christian and Ava can control is the next chapter in their life to be together or go on their separate ways. I seriously can’t wait for the second part of this book as readers like myself hope Christian and Ava can finally navigate their long way back home with the help of love as their compass.
RSS Feed
