when you were mine

Elizabeth Noble has written some of my favorite books.  Alphabet Weekends, The Reading Group, Friendship Test & Things I Want My Daughters to Know.  So I had no doubt that When You Were Mine would be another good read.

It wasn’t, really.  It was okay.

Susannah is living a life that she’s not sure she wants to live anymore.  Living with a man who hardly ever takes her feelings into consideration for the last several years and acting as stepmother to children who want nothing to do with her she wonders if she stays because she wants to or if she stays because she has nowhere better to go.  A chance meeting with the first love of her life at her brother’s wedding sends Susannah into a tailspin of emotion and flashbacks to when she was passionate and everything was exciting.  When her best friend comes to her with news that literally shakes Susannah to the core she loses herself even more in the past.

There was so much going on in this book.  I felt sorry for Susannah, but really she not that fun to root for.  She’s unhappy but really doesn’t want do anything about it, she just wants to hide until someone else takes care of it for her, yet at the same time confides in no one about her feelings of dissatisfaction.  Near the end you begin to see her stand up for herself and try to be strong, but it all is dependent on her desire to be with someone she can never really be with.  She just can’t seem to stand on her own two feet.

If this had been the first Elizabeth Noble book I picked up I doubt I would have tried her others, which would’ve been a shame.  While this wasn’t an awful book it still left me wanting something more…