Thursday, August 16, 2012

Loved, A Novel

I have been one of the few very lucky people in this world to read Loved in it's very early stages and I couldn't be more excited for it's publication.  This book, written over many years by my close friend Kimberly Novosel, was so incredibly truthful.  I found I couldn't keep my greedy little hands off of it.  It was truly one of those "I can't put it down and want to read all the time and when I'm not reading it I'm thinking about it" phenomena that I relish.  I found that I related so much to the main character.  I too grew up in a small town, I too had big dreams, I too let myself fall in and out of love with men who not only didn't get me, but certainly didn't deserve me, or treat me by any means the way a good woman should be treated.  Men that consistently confused me, let me down, and I kept going back for more.  I've also had those beautiful men in my past that left a permanent stamp on my heart.  That will be forever missed, created an everlasting void, and will never replicated identically in another.  Dearest Loved, please give me another page to read, please tell me how the story ends, but yet please don't let it be over.  After all, it felt like my story, and I was hungry to know how I would turn out.

Admittedly, I found myself envious of her in many ways.  She was more adventurous than I, and it seemed more brave too.  I wanted to be like her and regretted ways in which I hadn't been like her in some of the choices I had made.  I was also was grateful for some of our differences.  The results of many of her choices didn't always turn out as she originally hoped for with sweet naivety, and instead, proved to be very disappointing.  It was in these instances I felt I had dodged a bullet that she wasn't as fortunate to avoid.  This book has appeal for women of all ages because those women, at one point in time, either were this character or will someday be this character.

Loved is a must read.  Any young girl out there can learn from the main character's struggles, take them to heart, and hopefully be better for it.  By feeling an easy compassion for the lovable main character, I hope women of all ages can learn to love themselves by seeing themselves in her.  You can't help but root for her success, her ambition, and her journey.  You want her to win because you want to win yourself.