Genre: Women's FictionPublisher: Just Publishing
Publication Date: 5/22/13
Format: Kindle
Pages: 306
Source: Received from author for review
Rating: 3 stars
Fans of Marian Keyes and Jennifer Weiner will delight in Dee DeTarsio’s sparkling prose and lively dialogue as she takes readers into the heart of women’s lives.
Life is a soap opera, especially for Elle Miller, who writes for one. (Ellen dropped the “n” in her name in hopes of finding a better ending for herself.) When her laptop crashes, she borrows her recently deceased dad’s computer and gets way more than she bargained for.
Elle unravels mysterious communications from his computer, while her mom decides to give Internet dating a try. As Elle tries to save her career at I’d Rather Be Loved with a storyline featuring a trip through Atlantis, she takes a trip to the Emmys, and finds herself in the middle of a romance between a real doctor and a hunk who just plays one on TV.
Friends, family, and clues from “the other side” all help Elle figure out the difference between living the good life and living a good life.
Filled with friendship, love, loss, betrayal, and challenges that force her characters to find their place in the universe, Dee’s novels give us that hopefully-ever-after we're searching for.
Dee DeTarsio is a Winner of The 2013 San Diego Book Awards, Romance category, for Haole Wood, as well as a 2013 Next Generation Indie Awards Finalist.
Confession: My name is Andrea, and I was raised on soap operas. Seriously, I probably knew who Erica Kane was doing before I could talk. Soaps were my mom's thing, namely, All My Children. I can tell you pretty much anything that happened on that show from about 1982 until it ended. I also liked One Life to Live and General Hospital. I even dabbled in Days of Our Lives off and on (who can forget Marlena being possessed by the devil?) . Oh, I even watched Port Charles. That weirdly awesome show was trying to bring back vampires before Twilight made them cool again. Sadly, I just had to give up soaps because the lack of forward movement finally frustrated me to the point of apathy.
Why am I telling you this? Because my life-long love for soaps, and the pretty cover, is what made me want to read All My Restless Life to Live. This book, it was cute and quirky, not really what I was expecting. And honestly, it is as advertised in the synopsis.
So, the writing in All My Restless Life to Live is good. Really good. I love that the prose was seamless and takes little effort to fall into. For that I give the author big praise.
It's just...I never really got into the story liked I'd hoped to. I think this is because I never felt the whole bit with Elle's dad communicating with her from beyond, via his old laptop. I kind of shrugged at this. Because of the communication from beyond, a good portion of the story revolves around different theories of the afterlife. Between this and Elle obsessing over her dad's laptop, it all became a bit much for me. I will say this was all handled in a light and fun manner, never heavy, so that's fine. I'm not sure if it was my mood, but I just didn't feel it.
There's also Elle dealing with potential work and new relationships, one with a doctor and the other with a co-worker. I think if the story had begun with more focus on the relationships more, or her job, I would have enjoyed that. There was just so much back-and-forth with Elle's relationships, her struggles with her mom, keeping her job, and the darn laptop, that I never settled into the story.
All My Restless Life to Live was a neat story, and despite my gripes, I didn't dislike it. At another point, I may have even enjoyed it a lot. I think readers looking for a nice dose of quirkiness might like it.
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