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CATEGORIES: Barbara Elsborg, Book Review, Celebrity, Standalone

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Kate Snow’s had enough of bad boys until a one-way swim in the ocean puts her on a collision course with a man she can’t resist.

Charlie Storm has turned being a bad boy into an art form. Already a famous pop star, mega-success in the movie business beckons until his inner demons send him spiraling out of control and right out to sea. The last thing he expects to do before he dies is crash into a suicidal woman.

When the worlds of these two strangers collide, their lives take an upward twist. In surviving the waves, they find they can’t stand to be apart, in or out of bed. Kate seizes a chance for happiness, seeing in Charlie a man she can finally trust to love her. Charlie can’t let go of Kate because she’s the only woman able to see the man he wants to be.

But the price of fame is high and when the world wants to drive them apart, life only seems safe in Kate’s bed.

BOOK REVIEW: Strangers

Barbara Elsborg

RATING:

“I love you because I can be honest with you. I trust you. I love you because you've made me see I'm more than I thought.”

I truly enjoyed this book and, like most books I decide to review, I could not put it down. From the first few pages, this book draws you inside its storyline like a tidal wave and you stand no chance of escaping it.

It is in essence a love story, of course, but it also deals with issues such as suicide. It does it so beautifully, with humour and wit, without being too morbid and overpowering the love story itself. We meet the two main characters, Kate and Charlie, while they are both trying to commit suicide. Completely different events in their lives have made them so helpless and hopeless to resort to such drastic acts against themselves, but instead of “drowning” with them, we find ourselves laughing with them, laughing at their interaction with each other and hoping that two hopeless souls can equate to a hopeful ending.

I don’t like reading about suicide, heck, I don’t even like thinking about it. I prefer to hide my head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t happen. But life has taught me early on that is not so. I was reluctant to read this book for that reason alone but I am so HAPPY that I had the guts to start it. It’s a story that elates you rather than depress you. It also gave me an insight of how a person might feel just before losing all hope and what can bring them to that desperate act.

“I don’t see the point in anything, … I don’t feel part of the world. No one needs me or wants me or even likes me very much. I don’t like myself. The world will keep turning without me. I’ll be no great loss. I’m just a temporary misuse of a minute amount of carbon.”

My heart was breaking for Kate. I felt her desperation and I certainly felt her pain. Charlie’s reasons for wanting to commit suicide were less “tangible” to me but I guess each person is different and we all have different thresholds for despair.

Like in most of the books that I end up loving, the dialogues between these two characters are just wonderful and the only reason I did not give this book 5 stars (and I am still not 100% convinced that it does not deserve 5 stars) is because I personally could not digest some of the decisions the characters made at times (i.e. Charlie’s rendezvous with Jody Morton). Otherwise, it is an excellently written book with a very interesting and engaging story that kept me up until the wee hours of the morning.

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