Friday, May 6, 2016

Neverending Beginnings by Mary Chris Escobar

4 Star

Kate is alarmed to find out that her best friend Amy is getting married after dating for only six months. Her alarm turns to shock when she learns that the groom-to-be is Kate's old college ex. As the big day approaches, Kate's inability to hide her feelings is threatening to ruin her friendship with Amy.

Kate’s last minute, vodka-fueled wedding toast has her wishing she could turn back the clock and make things right. Imagine her surprise when she wakes up the next day and finds out she can.

Forced to relive one of the most painful weeks of her life, Kate slowly works to repair the damage she has done. In the process, she learns a lot about herself and the cynically charming best man, Ben. 





Kaley- 4 Star

We all have days and moments we would love to do over. Maybe you embarrassed yourself or hurt someone else. Or maybe you just made a really stupid decision. No matter the reason, we may wish for another chance to make things right even though we know it’s never going to happen. But Mary Chris Escobar’s heroine, Kate, gets that chance in Neverending Beginnings. Yep. Thanks to a truly awful bridesmaid’s speech, Kate gets to relive the week before her best friend’s wedding all over again. And again. And again.

On the one hand, I’m glad Kate lived the week over so many times because every time gave more insight into her, as a character, and gave her some much needed self-introspection as well. Some weeks allowed for getting to know minor characters more fully. There’s one week she lives that she goes to visit her dad and we learn more about her childhood and how she has (not) been dealing with her mother’s death.  On the other hand, I almost got a little bored after yet another instance of Kate waking up after the wedding and realizing she had to relive the week again. Overall though, every week gives the reader more information and strengthened what we already knew. I didn’t really find the story too repetitive, which is a surprise for a book that is about a character living the same week over and over again!

It can sometimes be hard for me to read books where the main character makes really stupid, cringe worthy decisions. Kate made a lot of those. A lot. There were times I wanted to smack her upside the head because she wasn’t realizing what needed to be done to get her out of this Groundhog Day-esque situation (clearly I see myself as an expert because of all the movies and books I’ve watched or read with a similar story line). But she was a really endearing character and I loved reading about her.

Even though Neverending Beginnings has a storyline that has been done before – having to relive the same event over again until you get it “right” – Mary Chris Escobar’s novel felt fresh. I was pretty captivated and invested in the story and definitely had a bit of a book hangover when I finished it. It might be why I immediately hopped online to download Delayed, which is a novella about a minor character from the novel. I need to see how the Happily Ever After was going! Neverending Beginnings is sweet, funny, and a great read. I definitely recommend it!


Thank you to the author for our review copy.  All opinions are our own.

Connect with Mary Chris Escobar:
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