About Us by Sinéad Moriarty

☆☆☆☆
.ePUB, 352 pages
Expected Publication: August 31st 2021
By Penguin Random House Canada, Penguin UK

About the Book:
Three couples. One therapist's couch...Alice and Niall used to be lovers, best friends and parents, in that order. Now they're no longer on the same page or even reading from the same book. Ann thought when she and Ken retired, it would be their second spring. Instead, it feels more like an icy winter. Orla is falling in love with boyfriend Paul, but her complicated past makes her unsure if she can ever be intimate with anyone. Three couples find themselves telling a stranger about the most private part of their lives - their hopes, their disappointments, their awkward realisations. Can they learn to be honest with each other? And what life-changing decisions will be made when they do?

My Review:

This book is about three couples, who are searching for answers to better their relationship. The couples lives are intertwined in smalls ways. Ann and Ken's daughter is friends with Orla. Orla is the teacher of Alice and Niall's daughter. These are their stories...

Ann and Ken are empty nesters and Ann is feeling it most. Alice and Niall are a couple with four children and are both at the end of their rope because of it, but for different reasons. Orla is a teacher falling in love with a students father, but has a long history sexual issues. 

What I liked about this book is it was different. It wasn't a romance per say but a book about romantic relationships and their ups and downs. It showed the good and bad and told both sides of the story. I really liked that Niall was the one to ask for therapy as it is usually the woman doing so and it was refreshing to see that.

Having been in all three of these situations at one point in my life...new love...married love...empty nest love...I could certainly relate to these couples, especially the women. I wanted to go and meet them all for coffee and a chat. Sinéad Moriarty takes a sensitive approach to the issues and also taught me a thing or two. The writing is brilliant and the dialogue is real, even the children. I really cared about the characters and I wanted them to work things out and stay together, not all of them were likable but they had reasons for being the way they are. The secondary characters were interesting too and I enjoyed getting to know them as well. I am ashamed to admit that this is my first book by Ms. Moriarty but it won't be my last!

Disclosure:
Thank you NetGalley, Sinéad Moriarty and Penguin Random House Canada, Penguin UK for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

#NetGalley