I’m going to be honest, it took me a lot to get through this book. I absolutely adored The Correspondent and A Man Called Ove, which felt very similar to the premise here in Life: A Love Story. I just didn’t connect the same with this novel as I did with the other two I mentioned. Now, why didn’t I connect to this novel? Well, there were a few reasons. 

First, the writing style bothered me. I don’t think this has anything to do with the author and has more to do with my personal preferences, but the letters from Flo felt too… nonchalant. Like it felt like a bunch of run-on thoughts and sentences. Again, I think that’s more personal preferences than actually a bad thing because the author was trying to represent Flo’s personal style as a character. I just personally didn’t like it. 

The other thing that bothered me is that it wasn’t really a linear plot. It felt like I, as a reader, was just ambling around and following Flo’s every whim. It wasn’t necessarily bad, it was just a little boring to me. There were no major secrets (barring one that honestly kind of hurt my heart at the end). There wasn’t any huge roadsigns or plot points that made you feel like you were going somewhere. You did get the  symptoms from Flo’s progressing disease, but that was it to be honest. 

What I loved about this novel is its quiet intensity. What I mean by that is that there are many moments that Flo talks about that seem very small in comparison to the whole picture of her life, but actually meant the most to her in the grand scheme of things. I really loved that emphasis on how the small moments can shape your entire life. 

Overall, I didn’t love this novel, but it wasn’t bad by any means. I was very much in between on it. While I enjoyed some aspects, there were other aspects that bothered me enough to not enjoy a lot of the novel as well. I would say a solid 3/5 stars.

Source: Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley

(P.S. You can read tons of books—including ones written by me—by trying a free trial of Kindle Unlimited!)