STANDALONE SUNDAY

 

Standalone Sunday is a fun feature created by Megan at Bookslayerreads where each Sunday you feature a standalone book (not part of a series) that you loved or would recommend. There’s so much focus on books that are part of a series… she thought it’d be nice to focus on some standalone novels, too!

Feel free to join in on this weekly feature by creating your own Standalone Sunday post! And be sure to check out Megan’s very creative blog and leave a link in her Standalone Sunday comments section so she can add your blog to the list

My Standalone Pick this week is:

FROM GOODREADS:

The Sunday morning starts like any other, aside from the slight hangover. Dani Keller wakes up on her Seattle houseboat, a headache building behind her eyes from the wine she drank at a party the night before. But on this particular Sunday morning, she’s surprised to see that her husband, Ian, is not home. As the hours pass, Dani fills her day with small things. But still, Ian does not return. Irritation shifts to worry, worry slides almost imperceptibly into panic. And then, like a relentless blackness, the terrible realization hits Dani: He’s gone.

As the police work methodically through all the logical explanations—he’s hurt, he’s run off, he’s been killed—Dani searches frantically for a clue as to whether Ian is in fact dead or alive. And, slowly, she unpacks their relationship, holding each moment up to the light: from its intense, adulterous beginning, to the grandeur of their new love, to the difficulties of forever. She examines all the sins she can—and cannot—remember. As the days pass, Dani will plumb the depths of her conscience, turning over and revealing the darkest of her secrets in order to discover the hard truth—about herself, her husband, and their lives together.

 

MY REVIEW:

 

Dani wakes up one morning to find her husband Ian gone. Did he go to bed last night? Did they fight? She can’t remember. All she knows is she is alone on their houseboat and he is no where to be found.  How could he leave her? After all that they have been through how could he? Did she really drink that much last night?  Her head is fuzzy and she has a major hangover.

 

HE’S GONE is the story of Dani and Ian.  Dani was in an abusive marriage and she was slowly but surely dying from the inside out.  Mark, her husband hits her a lot and is also verbally abusive to her.  They have a daughter together named Abby.  Dani knows the only way to be free of the abuse is to leave Mark but she can’t do it.  How can she ever be free of Mark since he is Abby’s father? How can she get away? She doesn’t know what to do.

 

Until one day at Abby’s baseball game she catches the eye of Ian.  Ian is married to Mary and they have two daughters Bethy and Kristen.  He is in an unhappy  marriage as well. Mary spends too much money, more than he makes.  She flirts with all the other men right in front of him, like he isn’t even there.  He doesn’t think Mary knows him at all or cares about him.   When he spots Dani at the baseball game he is instantly attracted to her.   Almost as if he has found his soul mate.  They both know it’s wrong and they try to fight it. After a while of sneaking around they stop.  Ian wants to give his marriage another try.  Over time, Dani finally leaves Mark.  Ian doesn’t even know about it as she hasn’t spoken to him in almost six months.

 

They eventually get together again after leaving their spouses.  They get married and soon learn that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.  They have destroyed two families, given up everything to be together.  HE’S GONE explores all those feelings and dissects all the lives they have changed forever.  As the weeks pass and Dani still hears nothing from Ian she starts to realize that she wasn’t very happy and neither was Ian.  Maybe he just got fed up and walked away.  Maybe he met someone else.  Maybe he went back to Mary. Is he having an affair? I mean, that is how they got together after all.

 

HE’S GONE by Deb Caletti was a very intriguing mystery. I had to keep the turning the pages to find out how it was going to end.  What happened to Ian? Would Dani ever find out?  I enjoyed diving into her mind and feelings as she sits and waits for Ian to come home.  I can usually figure out the who done it by the middle of a book, but not with HE’S GONE.  I had no idea until the end of the book and what a surprise ending!

 

THANKS FOR READING AND HAPPY SUNDAY!