All Your Perfects

Author: Colleen Hoover

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 4 out of 5

Pages: 305

Date Started: 16 May 2022

Date Finished: 21 May 2022

This is one of the books in the Colleen Hoover series I want to read. I liked Hoover's style of writing and so far this is one of her best books.

Their imperfect marriage threatens Quinn and Graham’s, perfect love. The memories, mistakes, and secrets they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair. Will their marriage survive? Will they find their happily ever after?

I liked the way Hoover portrayed Graham. The man who is madly in love with his wife and wants to keep her happy and yet at the same time feels helpless when he feels he is the reason for her being so unhappy! He also tries his best to give her space and feels he isn't doing enough.

The book felt like it had no twist and I could see the way it was going! But I am glad I didn't give up and continued to read. The entire time I was weighing things from both Quinn and Graham's views. I felt that both were right in their approach, yet had a soft corner for Graham. The secret of the box was something that made me keep going. I was glad when they opened the box and reading what was in the box broke my heart! Those were the perfect words from the author for the situation Quinn was in! I was happy with the way the book ended and to see Graham's love for Quinn was heartwarming!

Favorite lines from the book:

• If you only shine light on your flaws, all your perfects will dim.

• Sometimes when people change, it's not always noticeable in a marriage, because the couple changes together, in the same direction. But sometimes people change in opposite directions.

• Apologies are good for admitting regret, but they do very little in removing the truth from the actions that caused the regret.

• "Don't be so hard on yourself." he says, "Now you know exactly what to look for. When you meet someone who is good for you, they won't fill you with insecurities by focusing on your flaws. They'll fill you with inspiration because they'll focus on all the best parts of you."

• It's funny how you can be so happy with someone and love them so much, it creates an underlying sense of fear in you that you never knew before them. The fear of losing them. The fear of them getting hurt. It's probably the most incredible kind of love you'll ever know, but it's also the most terrifying.

• No marriage is perfect. There were times when she gave up on us. There were even more times when I gave up on us. The secret to our longevity is that we never gave up at the same time.

• Gratitufe is born in the struggle.

• I'm still fighting for something I don't even know that you still want me to fight for.

• I've been fighting for so long to be the strength you need, but that was the first time it occurred to me that I may not be what brings you strength anymore. What if I'm part of what brings you pain?

• Confrontation leads to action. Avoidance leads to inaction.

• My fear of not having you in my life sometimes overpowered my desire to see you happy.

• Avoidance sounds like such a harmless word, but that one word can cause some severe damage to a relationship.

Orphan Train

Author: Christina Baker Kline

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 5 out of 5

Pages: 278

Date Started: 27 April 2022

Date Finished: 1 May 2022

This book was recommended by a member of the book club I follow. I did not even read the synopsis before I started reading this book!

This is a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan train rider and a teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both. (Excerpt from Goodreads)

Both Vivian and Molly have lived a tough life. Vivian's character was the most influential one. Having survived moving to America losing her family to living in foster homes, Vivian went through a lot. Her ordeal second family she lived with was extremely heartbreaking. Even with everything she went through, the way she made peace with her past was a great read.

I had no idea about the 'Orphan Trains' and I am glad I picked up this book. The story of Vivian and Dutchy was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I felt it is easier to blame things on the past and the trauma we go through, but it is more important how we get out of the past! I was happy that Molly was able to help and bring closure to the loose ends in Vivian's life. As much as I loved the story, I liked the end too.

Favorite lines from the book:

• Sometimes these spirits have been more real to me than people, more real than God.

• "I suppose this is why people have children, isn't it?' she muses. "So, somebody will care about the stuff they leave behind."

• How strange, I think - that I am in a place my parents have never been and will never see. How strange that I am here and they are gone.

• It is a pitiful kind of childhood, to know that no one loves you or taking care of you, to always be on the outside looking in.

• I feel abandoned and forgotten, dropped into misery worse than my own.

• I learned long ago that loss is not the only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.