Things to Do When It's Raining

This book was provided to me by NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

I always like books where there are multiple generations involved. I think part of it is that I really like to see where people are coming from and to understand their actions. I read this book quite fast. I wouldn't say I read it fast because I was really enthralled by it, it was just very easy reading. Honestly after reading the newest Stephen King novel it was a nice change of pace.

I didn't really feel like there were any strong characters in this book. I also didn't feel like the ending was very satisfying. I understand that that's life and we don't always get every little detail explained to us in the end but it felt more like it was a lazy ending and that the author didn't feel like they owed us an explanation.

I think that the character I probably wanted to know more about was Gabe. We got into the past of the grandparents, which was good, as we got to see why they were having all of these problems. When it came to Gabe we saw what happened to him in his childhood and then we jumped forward to when he was getting divorced. I think I would have liked to have a little bit more of a background on how he got to be married. The only thing I really got was that he was in love with Mae and had trouble committing because of his past abuse, however we meet him after he's already been married. Obviously I wasn't looking for a whole psychological breakdown of him as a human being but it would have been nice if they touched on why they never had kids, if he felt that he was going to pass on the alcoholic and abusive tendencies to his kids and that was his fear. I think that I can just go ahead and safely assume that but I would have liked a bit more on him.

Now onto Mae. I guess she was pretty much the main character, however she felt kind of shallow as well. There was a lot about her past and her issues with her fiance, but she still seemed kind of like a blank to me.

I think the best one described was George. I understood where he was coming from and how he basically blocked out the possibility that his daughter was not in fact his by blood. I also think that it was interesting to see him basically go through a bunch of different emotions associated with what happened while also trying to grieve his wife's passing. His life was sort of thrown for a loop over something that he must have thought about over the years. He must have at some point wondered why the baby was early but not premature in any way.

Of course Bud was my favourite character.

I wish there was a little bit more meat to this book, it felt sort of shallow. Other than that I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it, but it might keep me from reading her books in the future.