JOSH & ANNA and GABE & CLAIRE by ELIZA FREED :: REVIEW

Standalone – addictive, heartbreaking, gripping, unputdownable 

4.5 Stars!

‘He leaned down and kissed me as if it were the first time our lips had met. Every touch, every breath on my skin sent his love coursing through me.’

What a story! We couldn’t wait to get on the phone and discuss this book once we’d finished. Eliza Freed is a new author to us and we’re now eager to check out her other work after becoming so engrossed in this book, finishing it one sitting.  An addictive, heartbreaking glimpse into the lives of two married couples, who, on the surface appear to be quite happy…dig a little deeper and cracks appear to show. This was a very clever bit of writing that kept us on our toes and guessing. We love it when a book manages to pull one over on us, and Josh & Anna, Gabe & Claire did exactly that.

“The only thing I’m sorry about is the way you feel right now. I was selfish. I needed you more than I loved you. For that, I apologize.”

It’s important to note that in our opinion, we feel this book is one best experienced completely spoiler free because the author does such a fabulous job of building the story into a guessing game. We had continual theories and thought we had it pegged throughout, but we were wrong.

We guess we’d describe this as an emotional, suspenseful expose of life behind closed doors and begs the question, do we really get to know someone as well as we think? Do we recognise and ignore a person’s flaws or do we choose not to see them, does love blind us to all? Well, Gabe and Claire thought they did, as did Josh and Anna. Two couples, four friends who all shared a close bond in marriage and friendship. Each couple is very different but each has issues they choose to bury, ignore or suffer in silence.

Gabe and Claire seemed to have the perfect marriage but behind closed doors, Claire’s insecurities were severe to the point of exhaustion. She was a pushy character who always liked to get her own way. We felt quite sorry for Gabe as he loved Claire but she certainly had Gabe walking on eggshells trying to placate her and keep some form of equilibrium in their marriage. For Gabe it was hard to reconcile Claire to the woman he married. They say love is blind….was Gabe completely blinkered?

‘Claire could do anything, and she often had, whether the rest of the world thought it was okay or not.’

Anna and Josh were dealing with their own issues. Anna was the day to Claire’s night. Whilst Claire was gregarious and pushy, Anna was quiet and went along for the ride. The cracks in Anna and Josh’s marriage started to appear when their hopes of conceiving a baby wasn’t coming to fruition.

“Don’t ever change – not for me or anyone else.”

A tragedy would soon affect them all. There would be moments to reflect, a time of self-discovery, guilt, pain and hidden feelings that would bubble to the surface leaving some ripped and raw.

“I need you to be fearless and bold.”
“Make me forget.”

That’s really as much as we can tell you about this story because to say more would completely ruin the surprise elements of this gripping, unputdownable read.  Strap yourselves in for one hell of a ride and an epilogue that was eye opening to say the least! Wow! We really loved this one!