Title: Someone Else’s Love Story
Author: Joshilyn Jackson
Source: from publisher for SheReads book club
Rating: ★★★★★
Review Summary: This book was so good I practically forgot to take notes, with spectacularly unique and believable characters driving a fascinating plot.
Single mother Shandi is deeply, lovingly devoted to her brilliant three year old son, so when the handsome William steps between her son and an armed robber, she immediately loves him too. Unfortunately for Shandi, William is still barely recovering from a devastating tragedy in his life and he has some secrets of his own. Their interaction will help both of them find out what they want and what they need as their lives shift around them.
This the third book I’ve read for the SheReads book club and the third one of those books I’ve given five stars, so if you’re looking for some good women’s fiction, I would consider these ladies an expert source of recommendations. Like many books I’ve fallen completely in love with, I have very few notes on why I liked it, because I was so deeply absorbed in reading. However, one thing clearly stands out to me as the most amazing part of this book: the characters. The characters were so believable, so unique, so real. Every character had their own history and their own quirks. The author somehow managed to write dialogue and narration that sounded completely natural but which were also examples of extremely beautiful writing.
The plot for me was almost indistinguishable from the characters because it followed directly from how these characters would act. At times I felt as though the author had simply created these characters and set them going, with the plot coming organically from the actions each character would naturally take. William was one of my favorite male characters ever. People with a truly scientific mindset are so infrequently featured as the heros of a book and that paired with his empathy for others made me fall just as in love with him as Shandi. The ending was a complete surprise but not in an unbelievable way and I loved it too. This whole book was a beautiful, hopeful, emotional ride and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Doing Dewey 
High praise! Will look it up – thanks for the review.
Wonderful! This is one of those books I enjoyed so much, I’m excited whenever someone else reads it 🙂
That’s a real rave Katie – I’d not heard of it so thanks very much.
I loved it! If it sounds like your sort of book, I’d definitely recommend it 🙂
See, I enjoyed this one until the VERY end. . .where it all tied up so perfectly. I’m just not a “tie up perfectly” kind of gal, but we’ve already chatted about my love story issues. 🙂
How funny how unique everyone’s tastes in books are! I’m very much a tie everything up perfectly kind of reader. I love a happy ending, often even if it is a bit too neat 🙂
I’ve not heard of this book before, but a 5* review… I’ve definitely got to grab this one for my ever-growing TBR pile! 🙂 Great review!
Thanks 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you end up reading it!
Wow! This is the first I’m hearing of this one, actually. I’ll have to take your tip and look up SheReads book club. It’s fantastic that the characterization was so well executed!!
I’ve completely loved every book they’ve picked, so I’d highly recommend it 🙂
‘The author somehow managed to write dialogue and narration that sounded completely natural but which were also examples of extremely beautiful writing.’ That sounds awesome. A lack of note taking for good books is surely one more confirmation of how great it is (I do it too) but then you end up worrying you won’t do the book justice. In this case it seems you have 🙂
It was awesome! And I can always tell a book is going to be a five star review when I get to the end and only have a few lines of notes 🙂
I loved this book as well! I agree, the She Reads’ book club choices have been excellent.
I’m glad you liked it too! They do a really great job 🙂
I really loved this book as well. I’m the same way with note taking though. If it’s a really good book I get so involved that I completely forget to note a thing. Lol.
She Reads rocks with their book club selections!
They really have done a fantastic job picking good books 🙂 I sometimes find writing a bad review difficult because I want to make sure that it’s tactful and fair, but I always have the hardest time reviewing my favorite books. The lack of notes makes it harder and I also think there’s something intangible that makes some books really click for me.