Book Review: Between Me and You by Allison Winn Scotch

Between Me and You

by Allison Winn Scotch 

Goodreads

Amazon / B&N

From New York Times bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch comes an honest, touching, and funny exploration of falling in and out of love, told from two perspectives—one rewinding history, one moving it forward—and each with bias and regret.

When their paths first cross, Ben Livingston is a fledgling scriptwriter on the brink of success; Tatum Connelly is a struggling actress tending bar in a New York City dive. They fall in love, they marry, they become parents, and they think only of the future. But as the years go by, Tatum’s stardom rises while Ben’s fades. In a marriage that bears the fallout of ambition and fame, Ben and Tatum are at a crossroads. Now all they can do is think back…

A life of passion, joy, tragedy, and loss—once shared—becomes one as shifting and unpredictable as a memory. As the pieces of their past come together, as they explore the ways love can bend and break, Ben and Tatum come to see how it all went wrong—and wonder what they can do now to make it all right.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I want you to be anything you dream of. But mostly I want you to be happy. Those things aren’t always the same, you know.

I can’t measure my love for Ben against Mom’s love for Dad because it’s not like you can quantify these things. It’s not like I can pour them into a cup and see which one measures more.

It’s raining in Los Angeles, and no one knows what to do about it. People are scattering around, hovering in Whole Foods, tweeting with panicked abandon: It’s raining! It might be the apocalypse!

He tells me he’ll be on his best behavior, but I’d cleaned up enough of Leo’s messes over the years… to know that while Leo might promise the moon, he’ll often never even glance up at the sky.

“He needs to grow up, Ben.” I could picture my dad shaking his head like he couldn’t imagine how Leo had gotten this far in life without being drafted into clown school.

 

My Review:

I struggled, valiantly I must add, oh, how I struggled, as this book was a full-on angst-fest and that is so not my jam.  But I also couldn’t stop reading.  Hmm, Allison Winn Scotch seems to have a handle on this writing thing… The storylines wove in and out of various timelines, and not in chronological order, with emotions and motivations capriciously seesawing from cautious jubilation to bleak and heart-squeezing despair, with clever licks of humor and amusing observations periodically tossed in.  Ms. Scotch’s deftly paced, observantly insightful, and emotive writing pulled me in quickly and held my attention, despite my exasperation with the prickly and temperamental characters. 

The characters weren’t inherently bad people but they were fatally flawed and vastly insecure as well as alluring, complicated, moody, selfish, stubborn, and damn it, they fascinated me to no end.  They weren’t always likable or admirable, in fact, there were times I despised them and wanted to throw my Kindle down in disgust of their self-centered, pettish, and pedantic behaviors.  And the more successful they became, the more out of sync, self-involved, dour, and loathsome they appeared.  Both had made critical errors in judgment in dealing with each other, so much so that I wasn’t sure a reunification was the best thing for either one.  The actress’s penchant for playacting had gone so far afield she had become inauthentic, even with herself.  Yet despite their odious and repellent behaviors, I couldn’t stop reading… I was more than satisfied with the conclusion and proud of myself for my dogged perseverance yet I had the irrational impulse to hurriedly close my Kindle before they could start in on each other and ruin it again.  Silly me.  

Empress DJ

Allison Winn Scotch

Website

Goodreads / Amazon

I'm the author of a bunch of novels, including IN TWENTY YEARS, THE THEORY OF OPPOSITES and TIME OF MY LIFE. My next and seventh book - which I am suuuuper-excited about! - is titled BETWEEN ME AND YOU and will be released in January 2018.

As an author, I know how brutal reviews can be, so I'll only post about books I've enjoyed. (Just in case you're wondering why all of my reviews are positive!)