When William Waters is born, he’s the younger sibling to 3 year old Caroline. Within a few weeks of his birth, Caroline passed away and he became an only child. His parents were cold and indifferent to him though – when William meets Julia Padavano in college, he not only falls in love with Julia, but with her family as well. He becomes part of the family instantly.
William and Julia marry, Julia’s younger sister Cecelia becomes pregnant at 17 – which enrages her mother and she’s kicked out of the family home. When Cecelia has her baby, a gorgeous baby girl, her dad visits, but has a fatal heart attack while still in the hospital. According to her mother, her father’s death is Cecelia’s fault.
When Julia falls pregnant, William becomes more distant and he leaves her shortly after the baby is born. He attempts suicide, and Julia’s younger sister Sylvie stays with him in the hospital and William and Sylvie fall in love.
I really wanted to like this book, I liked the basketball reference in it (I used to play… a lifetime ago), but I didn’t like William, or Julia. I think the only characters I liked were the twins Cecelia and Emeline. The book fell short for me with unlikeable characters and a storyline that could quite frankly be a cure for insomnia…
Read for the ShelfReflection Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 38: A book that could be associated with a song from Adele’s album titled ‘25’
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
