Book Review: Fairytales Don’t Come True

I enjoy reading book reviews and I’m following several reviewers here on WP. I’m particularly intrigued when a reviewer is also a published author, a dream I know many of us share.

Book reviews are not my sweet spot, but after reading fellow blogger Laura Lyndhurst’s debut novel Fairytales Don’t Come True, I thought it’d be fun to highlight it to the WP community. Laura has published 11 other books since then.

Amazon rating 4.5 (48)
Goodreads: 4.7 (64)
My Rating: 4.9

Amazon blurb: When middle-aged nurse Dora Stuart-Frazer is assigned to provide end-of-life care to ex-prostitute Magdalena, she suffers a failure of sympathy linked to the woman’s career and her own marital issues. It’s her job—her vocation to care. Trying to overcome her prejudices against her patient and the other members of the all-female household, Dora is drawn into their world. Mags has cancer and it won’t be long now. She is an unwilling listener to the sordid life-story that her patient wants to recount in her last few weeks of life. It’s her dying wish to get her story out and as such, it’s Dora’s job to listen. However, every night as her patient’s story unfolds, Dora needs more. She is transfixed and a willing listener as she compares the life of the story teller to her own and forces herself to confront her mid-life crisis. In this race against time, Dora has to know it all—but fears Mags won’t make it to the end.

My thoughts: I thought it was an interesting premise, which is what prompted me to purchase it on Amazon. The strained relationship between caregiver Dora and patient Magdalena (“Mags”) is the focal point as the latter seeks validation and ultimately redemption from a life riddled with tragic choices. Because Mags is terminally ill, the trust needed to tell her story is on an uncertain timeline that adds an interesting element of suspense. The story is richly layered and filled with interesting asides and English expressions, which I found delightful.

Character development is excellent. Dora’s uptight, prudish personality is built brick by brick for the reader through her chilly interactions with her husband, children, friends, and past patients. She’s judgmental, aloof and self-righteousness. She seems like the world’s least suitable hospice nurse to be paired with an ex-prostitute patient and her distaste for everything is evident from the first day. 

She can barely retain a  professional and civil veneer over her cold “you got what you deserved” detachment with her patient. She administers meds, checks vitals, helps Mags to the restroom, etc, but beyond these essential duties, there’s zero kindness and empathy. She’s there 12 hours a day and as the chatty Mags…who’s still in fairly good shape at this point…prattles on about her past, searching for commonalities, Dora rebuffs all attempts to build bridges.

As Mags’ story unfolds, Dora gradually becomes intrigued, then empathetic, and finally supportive. Mags’ tale is something that many struggle with today, making both ends meet, and after her parents—who are even more judgmental than Dora—disown her, her struggle to pay her tuition at college lead her down the slippery slope of the escort industry.

Dora is made to realize she’s in a much better position both monetarily and socially than Mags and it’s this understanding that blindingly helps her see that there but for the grace of God, goes her.

By contrast, Mags is naturally extroverted, a glass-half-full optimist who regrets her choices, but accepts her fate with forthrightness and dignity. Her relationship with her sponsor is turbulent and fraught with self-doubt in her unrequited love for him. No spoilers, but her character and humanity is revealed as she descends the social ladder from parties glittering with the world’s rich and famous, to tending bar and turning tricks in a back room…while her love for her first lover remains unbroken.

The other characters in the story–her icy parents, the other residents of the house/hospice facility, her boyfriends, college friends–are solidly developed and mesh well. Laura has built in some surprise twists as seemingly unrelated characters are revealed to indeed have related…and pivotal…roles in the story.

Overall, a very enjoyable read… the “one more chapter at 1:00 am” type. 😎

Find Laura’s book here on Amazon.

Details:

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B088PWWCML
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ ; 2nd edition (May 15, 2020)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 15, 2020
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1419 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 313 pages