Book Synopsis

High school sweethearts Charlie and Jo Marie are in love. But when Charlie walks away from Jo Marie, seemingly inexplicably, she struggles to understand how things could have changed so quickly. She holds out hope that he will come to his senses and return, but when he doesn’t, she moves on, albeit reluctantly.

Years pass, and Jo finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage and faced with a decision that challenges her values to the very core. Feeling lonely and afraid, she makes the only choice she knows she can live with, which isn’t accepted by everyone in her life- namely, her husband, with whom she can’t seem to find any common ground.

Angered by her decision, her husband gives her an ultimatum. Jo knows in her heart she can’t do the only thing that would make him happy, so she tries to “fix” the situation as best she can. She fabricates a story and posts her lie on her social media page. Unbeknownst to Jo, this sets off a firestorm of challenges, and the first one is a doozy….

She has to figure out how to explain to a recently returned Charlie Anderson why she named him as the father of her baby.

Making Buttons is a full-length, stand-alone novel, filled with all the angst, laughs, frustration, and satisfaction you expect from a heartfelt contemporary romance.

***Warning: This book is recommended for readers over the age of 18***
It contains strong language and sexual content.

 

Book Review

Making Buttons is a Contemporary Romance about love, family and second chances.

Jo Marie and Charlie are high school sweethearts but one day he decides to leave town and Jo ends up alone and heartbroken.

As times passes and Jo Marie realizes Charlie is not coming back, she reluctantly decides to move on, eventually meets someone else and gets married, but something happens that makes her reevaluate his relationship and go back to her hometown and her family.

Amelia Arbek’s gives us good characters (some of them like Luca are easy to love) and is interesting to learn about the the dynamic of the traditional italian family Jo is part of.

Jo Marie has an older brother (Guy), a younger sister (Giulia) and a younger brother (Luca). Her relationship with each one of them is really different but I found myself drawn to the parts of the story that showed interactions between Jo Marie and Luca, she’s protective of his younger brother and I found him mature for his age (there’s a reason for this but I won’t give anything away to avoid spoilers).

My perception of Charlie changed throughout the book and I ended up loving this character; yes, he makes mistakes but he also loves intensely, knows what he wants and is really persistent.

While I was reading this book I thought the story was going in a direction and then suddenly there were some twists that I definitely didn’t see coming but were interesting to read.

This story shows how true love can last, in life heartbreak sometimes happens, you can experience some regrets but at the end fighting for what you want is worth it.

I liked this book and if on the future Amelia Arbek writes a short story or a one-shot about Luca and Grace I would absolutely love to read it (Luca and Charlie were my favorite characters).

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*