Review: This Close To Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

This Close To Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Published: February 2021

When Tallie sees Ernest on the bridge, about to jump, she knows she has to stop him. She is a therapist after all. She wonders why he is there and what has brought him to this point in his life. She isn't frightened by him but has a desperate need to help. Ernest asks for a sign not to jump, and here comes Tallie, taking him in and caring about what is going on with him. Tallie decides and Ernest agrees to go back to her house for just the weekend. After the weekend, they can each go back to living their lives. Little do they know that the short time they will spend together will change them both forever.

I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't get enough of these characters and I didn't want this story to end. I had so many emotions throughout this whole book and by the end, I was very disappointed. I will be honest, I didn't like the ending. I wanted more from these characters and I didn't get the outcome I wanted from the story I read.

Have you ever met someone and had an instant connection? You feel like you can talk to them about almost anything and they won't judge you for it but will be supportive or critical as necessary. This is what happened with Tallie and Ernest, they didn't do small talk and got to the serious questions. The only problem is that each of them is hiding something, as we all do when we first meet someone. But the secrets they are keeping could destroy the weekend in one swift blow.

Will this encounter last just the weekend, or the rest of their lives?

This book had a lot of music associated with it, so I made a playlist click here to listen.  

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Review--Gray Mountain by John Grisham

Gray Mountain by John Grisham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Samantha Kofer is a real estate attorney working for a huge law firm in New York City.  When all of the banks go belly up so does Samantha's job.  She was given the option to being furloughed for one year and during that year, she is encouraged to volunteer during this year off at a non-profit that the firm has chosen.

Trying to find the right place to volunteer has been difficult since there are so many out of work lawyers who are all going through the same thing.  She found "The Mountain Legal Aid Clinic[who]ran its low-budget operations from an abandoned hardware store on Main Street in Brady, Virginia, population twenty-two hundred and declining with each census  Brady, was in southwest, Virginia, Appalachia, coal country."

In Brady, Samantha works with Mattie and Annette and meets many of their clients who are poor people in need of everything from simple divorces and wills to black lung disease claims  Mattie's nephew, Donovan, is also in Brady and his firm fights coal companies tooth and nail for the people of coal country who have been destroyed by their illegal practices. There are a lot of things that happen that help to shape Samantha into a more respectable lawyer, but they don't come without great loss.

John Grisham likes to get the heart of the matter, he likes to grip at your heartstrings so that you can feel the characters that he is portraying.  For a big New York City attorney, though, Samantha is not really a character I got to enjoy as much as I thought I would.  She seemed a bit of a wimp in some instances.  Whining about never setting foot in a courtroom or drafting a will.  I wanted to jump in the book and smack her one good time.  Whether or not you have done these things, you are a lawyer, and is this not in your job description?  This is one of the worse John Grisham books I have read.  It didn't have the same go getter attitude that the other books have.

Overall, the book kept me interested and wanting to know what was going to happen next.  There were parts that had me on the edge of my seat.  I'm wondering if there is going to be more from Samantha Kofer, because the story seemed unfinished.



First title in Take Control of Your TBR 2015!



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