2 in a row!?! Bloody hell! Emily Waters, who has effectively rendered me a fan now! First, it was the endearingly memorable debut, "Honey in the Marrow." And now this?!
It's official now. I'm a fan. A back-to-back read for me. Literally, immediately after I finished Waters' extraordinary debut novel, "Honey in the Marrow," I jumped right into her sophomore novel, "Two is a Pattern," because, well, why not? Strike when the iron is still hot, so to speak, eh? I'm so glad I did. Waters hit it out of the park with yet another captivating story grounded in the ever-intriguing intricacies of the human condition. The intersection between love and fear. We've seen it too many times IRL, be it as mere observers or active participants. But does true love, love that withstands even the worst circumstances, ever lose its pure enduring quality? In effect, the passage of time, despite being an illusory, self-fulfilling concept, only ever deepens the emotive terms of endearment between two star-crossed, lovelorn beings. And, whether we like it or not, we can't help who we fall in love with, can we? And THAT's essentially what this story is about....for me, at least.
I have to raise my hat to Waters for crafting these 2 MCs who couldn't be more different from each other, in every aspect of their lives. I actually was surprised about the younger MC being a spook going back to school which my mind immediately went to "21 Jump Street"! Ha! Wow, memory lane, much? And Waters making the older MC a professor only added to the beloved teacher-student age-gap trope intrigue! Oh, the "shenanigans" that ensued between these 2 characters starting from how they "met" and all the roundabout circumstances that inextricably befell them which worked out very well in terms of developing their relationship and its direction, so to speak, to the expected push-pull dynamic which was a such a fun ride to explore as I swiped page after page in sheer thrills until the very end! I must say, what I had in mind about how the story went and its ending, was nowhere near the vicinity of Waters'! It wasn't better than what I expected, but more like, it was different. In a very good way, I might add, because at the end of the day, the way the story went and ended was totally in-line with the MCs' states of mind and their perception/perspective of what the depth of their feelings for each other meant to them in their life journey.
Potential spoilers in the next paragraph! Read at your own peril!
[spoiler]I especially LOVED how Waters ended their story.... nothing feels more positive and hopeful than seeing your MCs riding off into the sunset, leaving their fate/future to your own imagination! And that's everything because when you put your vivid imagination to work, the sky's the limit, with infinite possibilities about how their journey would be as 2 people who, unbeknownst to themselves, had been in love with each other despite being apart for years! If that's not true love that endures the passage of time, if that's not a transcending connection between 2 souls who were meant to be together, what is, really?[/spoiler]
All in all, Waters managed to steer this otherwise highly popular, done-to-death but enduringly beloved trope amongst readers and writers alike, that is the age-gap romance, to a delightfully refreshing plot that I haven't come across (yet), is something to celebrate and I applaud her ingenuity for coming up with it!! Well done, Waters! I highly recommend this story to everyone who loves the age-gap trope but one that comes with some intriguing twists and turns that aren't usually found in this type of romance.
I'm eagerly awaiting what Waters' next story is going to be because I will surely be reading it without a doubt!
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