My book club chose this for our February read and after reading what it was about I was excited to be reading a suspense novel. Something new for our book club.
The book opens in the present, August 2016. Violet and her husband Finn are on vacation in Florida. Their first vacation with their son, Bear. Violet can’t remember the last time she felt so relaxed. Since becoming a mother, relaxing is a foreign word. Becoming a mother has been the most rewarding thing she’s ever done. The love she feels for her little boy only grows in its intensity. Life was good. Violet loved telling their love story and everyone loved hearing it. Most people would call it fate and said they were meant to be. She feels so lucky to have Finn and her baby boy. Her heart was full and she quit her job to be a stay at home mom. What mom doesn’t dream of some time alone though. When her husband takes up their son to go nap she has a hard time relaxing though all she can think about is their son Bear. She wants to be there when he wakes up from his nap. (I could totally relate this this part I always want to get away but when I do all I do is wonder what he is up to.)
“She’d once read a description of new motherhood that had struck her, at the time that she was returning to work after maxing out her maternity leave allowance, as a beautiful metaphor for her own days back at the office. It was that mother and baby are like a ball of yarn, and when the mother leaves the baby’s side, it’s as if the baby grabs hold of the loose end, a tug that both mother and baby feel in their every fiber. As they both move through the hours spent apart, the string unravels more and more, and then just when each is starting to feel diminished, barely even a ball of yarn at all anymore, it’s time for the mother to make her way back. Together again, they need only a bit of time to wind the string back up, and then it’s as if they had never been apart, right up until they wake up and do it all over again.”
Violet gets up to the hotel room and finds it silent, with no toys, no suitcases. At firs she thinks she is in the wrong room but then she still finds her things in there, but all of Finn and Bear’s are gone.
This story is told from multiple view points, Violet, Finn and Caitlin. Sometimes in the present and sometimes in the past. The chapters had dates on them which helped me out a lot. You do not get far into the the book before you realize that each character has something hidden. It is interesting to see how experiences have shaped each one of these characters. I have to admit after learning some secrets I was very tempted to flip to the end or look up spoilers but I resisted and I am so glad I did.
This book and these characters made me question; How often do we see what we want to see? How many times have you held back questions because you weren’t sure you truly wanted to know the answers?
This book and the plot was so interesting and I really enjoyed the writing style. I loved how you felt like the author gave you so many details to a character only to make you realize you didn’t really know them at all.
This novel really shows you no matter how small your choices may seem they can have a domino effect and really change the course of your life forever.
Almost Missed You is a novel I won’t soon forget. I stayed up many nights too late to read this book and often dreamt about being the main character.
I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars.
Keep Calm and Read a Book 