A Forty Year Kiss
This was an interesting take on a second-chance. While I wouldn't categorize it as strictly romance, more contemporary fiction, it centers on Charlie and Vivian now in their sixties, who were married forty years ago. They reconnect when Charlie retires and inherits his uncle's home near where Vivian still lives all these decades later. He's never stopped loving her, but he also remarried twice and knows his alcoholism has been a factor in every one of his relationships. She's faced struggles and triumphs of her own through the years and currently lives with her adult daughter and two granddaughters.
I appreciated the connection and communication between the two main characters, the ways they grapple with the past, and try to imagine a future together despite all the baggage they carry both from their marriage and the years in between. The lack of quotation marks didn't cause too much confusion for me, but it took a little getting used to. The writing was beautiful. The plot was slow moving, and every time I thought something dramatic might happen, it didn't. It was a story that kind of snuck up on me and lingered a little. There were some elements that weren't exactly my taste, but it was a nice change, especially with the older protagonists, to some of my regular reads.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the DRC. The above is my genuine opinion and reading reaction.
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🫑 This book contains very brief and vaguely descriptive intimate moments.
