REVIEW: Come as You Are by Theresa Weir
“Molly Young has a secret. To keep it she holds the world at a distance. Behind her lies a trail of dumped boyfriends who came too close to discovering what no one can know. When her estranged father dies of an unexpected heart attack he leaves an even deeper secret, one tied to Molly’s.
At the funeral repast Molly is unable to tolerate the shoulder-to-shoulder mourners and runs out the door and down the street to the nearest bar. Come dawn, with no memory of the past ten hours, she finds herself in bed with a beautiful stranger. She slips away before he wakes up, unaware of the role he’s about to play in her life. Is he the one guy who can convince Molly to face her painful secret and become the person she’s meant to be?”
Dear Ms. Weir,
I will admit that it was your name that got me to look at the blurb for this book and the opening hook that Molly isn’t at all sorry that her adoptive dad is dead that made me want to keep reading it. It’s fairly obvious why Molly hates her dead father though the reveal doesn’t take place until late in the story. Her self destructive behavior and avoidance of getting too close to anyone pretty much spell out what’s what here. She can be a real bitch at times and it’s painful to watch her hurt herself over and over.
Ian is a dream guy. He takes care of Molly before he even knows who she is in relation to him – and that part was a tad squicky to read about even though the reader knows from the beginning that they aren’t blood kin – and keeps on doing so over the course of the story. At times I had to wonder why he kept going back for more helpings of watching her wallow in pain though for her sake I was glad he did.
Why did I keep reading about these characters? Because your writing style grabbed me and wouldn’t let go and you made me care about what had and was going to happen to them. It’s not an easy read though the specifics of Molly’s past aren’t told in gory detail. I think watching her make bad choices and suffer from them took the place of that.
When it’s all over, I get the feeling that Molly is still a work in progress while Ian remains his perfect self. I would have liked to see him be a bit more imperfect, a touch more real but since he’s a balance to Molly’s darkness, he manages to work for me. The other issue from Molly’s past needed more resolution for me. But maybe we’re meant to be left with the feeling that for the first time, Molly is more in control of her life and that she’ll make her decisions when she’s ready. While the end of the book might have left things more up in the air than I wanted, the strength of the writing pulled me effortlessly along. B-
~Jayne
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This sounds really good. I’ll have to check it out.
@Patricia Eimer: It’s a good way to keep your Weir on while waiting for “The Geek with the Cat Tattoo.”
@Jayne – ooh, when’s that coming out? I’m looking forward to it (although it will be hard for any book to live up to TGWTCT, imo).
It’s only $0.99 for Nook and Kindle. Sold!
@cleo: It’s due out sometime next year according to her website. There’s a cover already up there.
You had a better reaction than I did to this one Jayne. For me, it skimmed the surface of too many things and I thought it was too short to really traverse the serious topics raised. I have only read the Cat Tattoo book (and I liked it but didn’t love it like you did) so part of it may just be that this author doesn’t work as well for me as she does for you – but I can’t really tell because I’ve only read two of her books so I can’t say I have a real handle on her style.
I did wonder if there was something meta about the way Molly only interacted on the surface and the way (for me, at least) the book seemed to skim the surface of many things, but I’m afraid if that was the case, I was not the right reader to interpret or appreciate it.
By the end, I didn’t really know what to make of it and I ended up at C? as my grade!
@Kaetrin: I can see your point. There is a lot going on here but I think I left it with the feeling that Molly is supposed to be in transition and thus it’s a HFN ending.
If you’re still interested in trying her writing, perhaps you might want to look into one of her older – and I think now reissued – full length books and see if that works better for you. Or not. ;) I know how the “this author just doesn’t work for me” thing goes.
@Jayne: I think I would like to try another of hers at some point – the two books I have read have both been shorter and they were so different I’m not sure I could say I really know her style. I did like the Cat Tattoo book – I just didn’t love it as much as many others did – whereas, Come As You Are left me fairly baffled. :)