The Love Story of Missy Carmichael
By: Beth Morrey
Published Year: 2020
Publisher: G.P. Putnam and Son’s
Pages: 352
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Woman meets dog...
The world has changed around Missy Carmichael. At seventy-nine, she's estranged from her daughter, her son and only grandson live across the world in Australia, and her great love is gone. Missy spends her days with a sip of sherry, scrubbing the kitchen in her big empty house and reliving her past--though it's her mistakes, and secrets, that she allows to shine brightest. The last thing Missy expects is for two perfect strangers and one spirited dog to break through her prickly exterior and show Missy just how much love she still has to give. Filled with wry laughter and deep insights into the stories we tell ourselves, The Love Story of Missy Carmichael shows us it's never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. It's never too late to love.
First Impressions
I loved A Man Called Ove and enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, so when this book was described as being for readers of both of those novels, I was in. The cover is cute, but it doesn’t stand out much. It reminded me a lot of The Story of Arthur Tru Love as well as a lot of other novels about senior citizens. I do like the color of it though.
What I thought
Missy is 79 years old and alone. Until she goes to the park and bumps into Sylvie, Angela, and Otis. Unexpectedly, she beings to grow a new family and learn more about herself than she expected.
I did enjoy the book overall, but I think it’s going to be one of those that I forget about in a month’s time.
I liked Missy and I liked seeing her open up with the help of a dog and some new friends. However, there were a few things going on that I felt like weren’t fully developed and could’ve ultimately been left out. There were also parts that didn’t make much sense until the very end of the story.
The character development was my favorite part of this novel. Missy was great, Angela was dynamic, Sylvie was sweet, and Otis adorable. I also loved Bobby, who was the dog who really helped Missy open up. The fact that an animal can help someone heal so much really warmed my heart. Since this is a story that is centered around a character’s growth and development, this was a strength of this novel. I liked the writing style. Unfortunately, this was another one of those books that didn’t have a driving force behind the story that made me want to continually pick it up. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy reading it! Every time I picked it up I was invested, it was just one that was easy to put down again.
The one part that I really liked about this story was that it showed a different type of love story. I think we often get sucked into flashy love stories because they translate well in novels, but that isn’t how every love story is. There is a line in this that said something along the lines of “we were never fireworks, we were coming home” and that really resonated with me. Even though this was a slow burn of a book, it had a lot of wonderful things to say.
This is one of those books that if someone asks me if they should read it I will wholeheartedly say yes. It was a good book that has a lot of great characters and messages. Like I said above, the problem is that if someone asks me if I have any recommendations for a book to read, I don’t think this one would pop into my mind.