I'm only rating this a four because of how high my blood pressure was reading a lot of this book. I absolutely LOVE the way Megan Hart tells a story. Every single word doesn't have to have a double meaning yet it's obvious how much she thinks into her characters and storylines. I could not help but feel an extreme and often overwhelming compassion for Todd. Gilly and Todd were both such flawed characters and while I'm glad the expected did not happen, I wish there could have been a happy ending for them both. Yet another to love Hart and her superb storytelling. She's easily one of my favorite authors and I would read anything she wrote. Period. This book...God, this book. I don't even know what words to use to express how I feel after finishing it. I feel raw, like my insides have been twisted, my heart has been savagely squeezed until it could bleed no more. I feel like there is a dementor hanging above my head sucking away all the happiness I have ever felt. I am an emotional wreck even as I am empty of any emotion, and yet I would read the book again and again. Megan Hart has a way of making words meaningful and beautiful. I don't think I've come across an author who was quite as good at creating realistic characters as she is. I understood Todd, I understood Gilly and I understood their actions. Any time I thought this is it, now they become close, now she comforts him, now she will kiss him, the story would take a turn and the opposite would happen. While my logical mind understands and appreciates the truthfulness of everything that happened, because that's what people would likely do in real life, my stupid inner self felt cheated out of a romantic ending and all the gushy mushy things that come with other novels. In the end, that very sense of reality made the book so special and made me love it even when I hated it. I loved Todd, he was just a grown child who was scared and needed comfort, needed to believe that there was something good out there. I didn't love Gilly, I dont know why, maybe because of her reluctance to accept Todd (even if I realise that's normal because he kidnapped her). But her character was also achingly real, as if I could reach out and touch her. The love she shared with Todd (because that's what it was no matter what she said)was not the traditional love that blossoms between a man and a woman. It was complex, constantly shifting, living thing, unwanted but there all the same. Her love for him was twisted and dirtied by his actions towards her, by him keeping her captive. But it was also beautiful because when she could have spurned him away and left him to suffer, she found the strength within herself to reach out to the one who hurt her and offer solace. Todd's love for Gilly was purer in a way. It was the love of a lonely child for the one singing him to sleep and the love of a man for the woman sharing his highs and lows. I can't help but think what would have happened if Gilly didn't have a husband to betray - would she have let herself love Todd then? This wasn't a book in which the mother is ecstatic about having children and she doesn't mind the hard work they are. This was a book about a mother who was so exhausted that she let a man kidnap her only so she'd stay in silence for a few minutes. Gilly is the portrait of a woman, a mother and a wife - she will protect her children at any cost but she is also unappreciated by her family and husband, almost expected to take care of everything. Gilly is the woman you meet at the store, the woman you pass on the street, the woman sitting on a bench rocking a baby in her arms. A woman who had everything - caring loving husband, two healthy children, a nice house with a picket fence and a dog. Megan Hart just dives into this image of perfect harmony to expose the harsh reality. Gilly has everything yet she is never content. Not until Todd comes along and she realises how much she misses her family. In a way Todd healed her even as she healed him - I just wish this was one of the novels who ended with happily ever after.
Do You like book Precious And Fragile Things (2010)?
The whole thing was just weird. I didn't like either character and the ending is awful.
—cookie
If you ever thought about escaping your life this is the book for you! Loved it!
—dogslover202
really dumb storyline...incredulous! Not recommended at all!
—MyAngela
