The End

I finally finished reading Barefoot last night...

I cried a second time when Vicki makes her list of all of the things that she wants Brenda to do for her kids.  It was so sad!  Overall I was disappointed with the ending, although I would say that Vicki's character had the most closure.

The things about the ending that irritated me:

- I can't believe Melanie went back to Peter - what is wrong with her?!

- The Brenda / Walsh thing was too Cinderella-ish and quite frankly I don't think Brenda deserved a super hot sensitive smart amazing man

- Josh totally got screwed and everyone forgot about him in a way

- The thing with Didi was so random and quite frankly kind of unnecessary to the story

I think the book would have been a lot better if the author had focused more on Vicki's story (or I guess Josh's story).  The entire book could have been about Vicki and Ted, their relationship, the kids, Vicki's illness, etc and Melanie and Brenda could have been side characters rather then main ones.  The problem with focusing on all three women was that I didn't feel like I connected with any of the characters because we never learned enough about any of them to really care.

Overall I would give this book a C+...

My First Tears

I am still reading the book so I won't weigh in on favorite characters yet but I cried my first tears while reading the book last night.  I think it was pages 214 - 215 where Vicki goes for a walk and Ted follows her out and she breaks down about being sick and they have a conversation and then afterwards Vicki admits that she is too weak to walk home.  Then Ted says he knows, and that's why he came, and he carries her home and Vicki thinks about how it is the most intimate moment they have had in months.  I was totally teary eyed.

So far the book is really interesting because honestly I don't really like any of the characters but the book itself is fairly enjoyable.  All of the characters have some serious flaws - and not really flaws that make me relate to them...more flaws that irritate me.  Of course except for Josh - he is adorable.

Peter's character is just gross.  Unfortunately I  think there are a lot of men like that who have terrible affairs and then expect their wives to forgive them when they are done and are ready to get back together.  What kind of wife would just sit around and wait for her husband to finish up an affair and then go back to him?!?!

I still have a bit of the book left and from some of the other posts I am guessing I am going to be disappointed with the ending but we'll see...