Fresh and personal; insightful

“Summary: Enticing memoir, intriguing insights, best in 2nd half, and use the 1.2X speed.

The choices, expectations, worries and dreams of women about romance, love, marriage and famly life are the core of the story here. The setting is undeniably promising, centered on Kate Nason's -- and the media's -- discovery that her husband had been a lover of his student, Monica Lewinsky, during their marriage. Nason's keen observations and insights kept me interested, even though I found the first half slow to get going, with much daily minutiae described in more detail than I appreciated.

I suggest a reading speed of 1.2X. While the author/narrator has a pleasing voice and spot-on expressiveness, her reading pace is annoying slow. I do this rarely in many years of listening, but for this book, 1.2 was just right for me.

The memoir is compelling for universal themes and learning that the author shares, and she's brave in her self-revelations as she describes her growth as she meets shocking challenges. Her physical and character sketches of both men and women are truly vivid. The main story is handled well: the upheaval that follows to Nason and her family when her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky is brought out in the context of the Clinton scandal, along with her reaction to these profound and pervasive betrayals. It is an account of collateral damage arising from public events, from a perspective that I certainly didn't catch at the time, and this point of view is well handled even though the outcome is known.

It's not clear why Nason would give a pseudonym to Monica, though I can see why she does that for other women who were involved with her husband, but it doesn't hurt the story. This memoir is a solid, reflective and well-written account with an original and thoughtful approach.”

-Maureen McDaniel