The Art of Always by Patricia Friedrich: A Book Review
Genre: Romance
Friedrich writes an interesting love story between two best friends since birth. In many ways, Friedrich illustrates the ideal fairytale – lowly working woman struggling to get by and rich white knight willing to help and whisk her away.
From a writing perspective, The Art of Always was actually quite good. The only plot hole that I had to take into consideration was Darcey’s “secret” daughter. Honestly, even looking back now I am thrown of why the daughter was even a secret – which might have been Friedrich’s point. My main issues stem from the plot and the characters all of which teetered on the edge of absurdity.
Starting with the plot first, the plot surrounds the fact that Dacrey wants/needs to finish her degree in order to help pay bills and everything in order to help her parents take care of her daughter. All of that is fine. My questions (as stated before) is why keep the daughter a secret? It seems like the complete opposite of what a mother would do. I know no single mother actively hiding her child – rather the mothers I have met love to talk about their children even as they seek to continue their degree. From research, Brazilian families seem to be even more family orientated. Why hide the fact that she has a daughter? Darcey didn’t have to actively showcase the child, but she seemed forced to paranoia about anyone finding out. My other issue with the part was the fact that branching story lines and everything were useless to the story. For example, the side story with the aunt. They did nothing to help the story – and the backstory for the so-called feud was ridiculous.
Of course this all stems from a big issue with the characters. They constantly seem to be forced into actions that they would not make if they were real. Take Archie for example – he seems to be the most authentic; he’s getting tried of being lead around, but he still constantly comes back. I get it – he’s the white knight – he needs to wait for Darcey to come around and stop lying to herself. Why was he being so passive?! He was sending so many mixed signals doing that – and the ”caught in the moment” line was complete BS. Did he have to make a super long speech about his feelings for her? No – but he could have at least mentioned that he was tired of waiting for her so he understands if she just wants to be friends and he will continue to help her – maybe even add onto the idea for her to tell him when she figures out what she actually wants.
I don’t know. Maybe I am being picky or even a little ignorant about family/people relationships. I truly understand that I am a cynic, a pessimist, and a realist. Am I really that ignorant about people’s need to keep secrets regardless of whether they should matter to the world or not?
| Plot: | 8 / 10 |
| Characters: | 8 / 10 |
| Writing: | 9 / 10 |
| Editor: | 9 / 10 |
| Total | 34/ 40 |
Title: The Art of Always
Author: Patricia Friedrich
Edition: eARC
Published: January 19, 2022
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
ISBN: 9781509237791
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
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