Review: Kate & Alf
Unfortunately, sometimes there are books that just don't live up to the descriptions, and Kate & Alf is one of them.
After seven years together, several of those years living together, Kate & Alf still aren't married. While Kate has been waiting for a proposal that was promised to come, Alf seems to have put all thoughts of marriage out of his head. He also doesn't really seem to know Kate, though he insists that after seven years together he does. From insisting that she doesn't like certain foods (that she does) to talking badly about her best friend, to saying that he likes her plain & simple instead of dressed beautifully, Alf really comes across as uncaring and unlikeable.
Kate also has her issues. Somehow in the past seven years, she has forgotten herself and has buried her own life and expectations under a Stepford-like semblance, complete with rushing home to make sure that dinner is ready for Alf. Instead of being the vibrant artist, she works as a care-giver in a retirement home. Instead of a proposal, she gets a dog... and pretends to be happy. She doesn't really stand up for herself until about 40% of the way into the book when she discovers that Alf accepted a job offer in Scotland without consulting her first.
This is not a romance book, not is it really a story about a character finding herself. This is a book about the death of a long-term relationship and a character going back to her past. While it was good to read about Kate reviving her love for painting, her missteps along the way make me want to cringe rather than cheer. There is too much emphasis on relationships in this book, making it seem like the characters need a romantic relationship to be happy.
While the beginning of the book wasn't bad, it soon started dragging and never recovered the momentum of the introduction. The epilogue at the end was more satisfying that the rest of the book, which made me wish I had read the prologue and skipped straight to the end, bypassing the awkwardness of the actual story. The epilogue shares the new direction that Kate's life is taking and shows more promise than the rest of the story, and there is a feeling of hope and "newness" that the rest of the book lacks.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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