Summary:
In a powerful romance hailed as “heartbreaking, real, and breathtakingly beautiful” by Stacey Lynn, New York Times
bestselling author A. Meredith Walters tells the story of a troubled
young woman and the unforgettable guy who teaches her to live—and
love—to the fullest.
She’s waiting to die. . . . Corin Thompson is paralyzed by her obsession with mortality. Having lost both of her parents, she is terrified by the idea that she too will die young, and she loses control at any sign of illness. But when Corin connects with someone who has survived a very real brush with death, she begins to see the world in a whole new way.
He’s learning to live. . . . As Corin struggles under the weight of her neuroses, Beckett Kingsley is attempting to rebuild a life that feels all too temporary. With the ever-present threat of heart failure never far from his mind, he just wants to make the most of whatever time he has left. And that means pursuing the girl he never expected to find.
Together, Corin and Beckett finally learn to let go of their fears and take solace in everyday pleasures. Who knows what the future holds? After all, nothing lasts forever—the only promise they have is right now.
She’s waiting to die. . . . Corin Thompson is paralyzed by her obsession with mortality. Having lost both of her parents, she is terrified by the idea that she too will die young, and she loses control at any sign of illness. But when Corin connects with someone who has survived a very real brush with death, she begins to see the world in a whole new way.
He’s learning to live. . . . As Corin struggles under the weight of her neuroses, Beckett Kingsley is attempting to rebuild a life that feels all too temporary. With the ever-present threat of heart failure never far from his mind, he just wants to make the most of whatever time he has left. And that means pursuing the girl he never expected to find.
Together, Corin and Beckett finally learn to let go of their fears and take solace in everyday pleasures. Who knows what the future holds? After all, nothing lasts forever—the only promise they have is right now.
Review:
Rating: 3 stars.
Butterfly Dreams is only my second book by A. Meredith Walters, but from what I've read in those novels, and what I've gathered about some of her other works, I've come to the conclusion she's an author who doesn't shy away from difficult subjects, and making her characters go through a lot of suffering over the course of a few hundred pages. Unfortunately for Corin and Beckett, the stars of Butterfly Dreams, they weren't spared the heartache, and not the emotional kind.
Beckett had suffered a heart attack, and diagnosed with genetic heart defect. Corin's heart problems, on the other hand, were in her head. Ever since losing both of her parents when she was a teenager, she'd become obsessed with her own mortality. She was convinced there was something seriously wrong with her even if all her test results kept coming back normal. Her latest source of anxiety was her heart. So certain she was she had some kind of heart disease, she joined a support group for people with heart issues. That was how she and Beckett met.
I have to admit, their story sounds more appealing to me in theory. What I actually read about them, well, I wasn't overly impressed. I did like Beckett from the start, but I wasn't so lucky with Corin. That girl, she would not be winning Miss Congeniality any time soon, that's for sure, but I don't think it was just her prickly personality that made me unable to care for her as I did for Beckett. I'm no stranger to anxiety, so Corin's troubles should've made her more relatable, but I failed to connect with her. Instead of understanding her actions, I was more annoyed by them than anything. To be honest, I didn't get Beckett's fascination with her, or why he was so determined to become a part of her life. Come to think of it, their transition from friends to boyfriend-girlfriend didn't feel as a natural progression of their relationship. It just sort of happened. I knew it was coming, but I didn't care for the way it happened.
What I did like was what came next. Beckett, ever the optimist trying to make the most of every day, was an excellent influence on the always focused on death Corin. This was the point where I finally grew to like her, and every step she made be it in being a better girlfriend, friend, sister, or learning to enjoy life, living in the now, letting go of the past, or making progress in controlling her anxiety, it was great. Most of all, I liked the epilogue. The story got sad towards the end, and that epilogue was everything. I loved how it was done.
Butterfly Dreams will be joining the books I read and wished they were written differently to give me more feels, but even so my heartstrings were tugged at, and that was all I wanted. I'm not an expert on A. Meredith Walters' books, therefore I'm not sure whether this would be the right first book by her to read or not, but to those who are already her fans, this could be another book to their liking.
***ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***
P.S. Both Purple and I were given the opportunity to read an ARC of Butterfly Dreams, so if you'd like a second opinion on it from someone who liked it less than I did, click here.
Until next time, happy reading!
XOXO,
