:)

[Manashi]

I am one of those who cannot handle infidelity in any shape or size. Neither can I forgive or forget.

Te love story part of this novel is extraordinary. It is between two matched and balanced individuals and all the conflicts depicted made total sense.

What I almost hated about this book is the way Cole's mother is painted to be a villain where she is the one who has been the worst victim.

Two people have a decade long affair not bothering about their families and the effects it had on their children. Cole's father was "brave" enough to keep a mistress right under the nose of his wife and children but would not divorce his wife lest he should lose his business? What kind of man does it make him? Jolie's mother wouldn't take any money from him neither would she let him go? And they talked about being in love? What kind of love asked for people being greedy and selfish and hypocrite?

And what do I find in the end? I understand Cole not giving up on Jolie, but how could he atleast not understand where his mother was coming from? Which woman is magnanimous enough to accept her only son with the daughter of her husband's long time mistress?

I would have preferred if this angle was handled in a different way. Cole and Hannah preached and blamed their mother for being ruining their lives, but was that really the case? They treated the woman, their mother, in the most ungrateful and insincere way I could ever imagine.

I am thoroughly disappointed the way Rachel is shown to be a saint and Cole's mom to be a villain.

There is no justice in the world, hope to find some in reel.

Pity that Jolie understood the pain of Cole's mother more than her children did or should have.

An extraordinary and touching love story for me but the basis left a sour taste in my mouth.