lyrical and werll written, mostly pretty great, but unfortunately has some weakness near the middle. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

This is an emotional story, at times really powerful. I might have preferred to stay longer with one or two of the characters, because the interiority was so strong, but all characters were well drawn.

Yes, this is a love story. However, in addition to the romance implied by it's title, this story shows the side of love that can be brutally honest and heart wrenching. We are told this story of Abe and Jane, their courtship, marriage and eventually her terminal illness, through varying points of view.
The most moving is Abe recounting their lives to Jane as she lay dying, the most unique is making Central Park itself a comforting and observant character.
If I were to choose one word that defined the meaning and importance of this story, it would be 'memory'. Memory; the way Jane remembers, the way Abe reminds her in his gentle monologues at her bedside, and toward the end, him struggling to retain those memories that define a relationship spanning years, for himself. A well written and literary look at love, art and a family of three over the course of 5 decades.
Thank you Penguin Dutton and NetGalley for the chance to be an early reader!

The description and storyline of this book were great but I felt like I kept turning pages waiting for something, anything to happen and grab me into the story. Sorry, this book wasn’t for me.

This book is just hard to read. While I understand what the author is trying to do. It just is very difficult to read. It is told from all the perspectives of one family and the people who played a role in the love story of this family. I appreciate that this love story is raw and emotional, and real. There is no sugar coating the characters in this story. Their stories are real life stories. A mom facing postpartum depression, and cancer. A father who is struggling with his wife’s disconnect and being drawn to another woman. The young woman who finds her professor to be enchanting and alluring. A son who grew up not knowing what his mother’s love was like but realizing that both his parents were important but not really knowing how to connect with people beyond a fleet moment in time. It just is written in a way that is so hard to get through and personally I didn’t enjoy it.
Thank you to Penguin Publishing Dutton and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I requested this ARC because I liked the premise of the story - Abe and Jane growing older together and faced with a terminal illness in addition to all the other things going on in their lives. The reality of the book was that it was written in a style that grates on me - the only thing to tell you who was saying what was the chapter headings indicating whose story we might hear now. Not a single quotation mark, sentences that seemed to ramble on. The reader gathers that each person was successful in their chosen fields, Abe as an author, Jane as an artist. The couple occasionally came together to talk about these things. They had a son, Max, and his mother suffered from severe postpartum depression which, at the time, was not well-recognized nor was it taken as a serious health concern, one which needed to be treated.

I did finish the book, but skimmed a lot of it, thinking it must surely get better along the way. For me, it did not.

This is just not the right book for me. The writing is super repetitive (purposely) and that just annoyed me.

Abe and Jane have been together for 50 years, and now Jane is terminally ill. Abe is retelling their stories and memories through the book, talking to Jane as she is on her deathbed. We also get their story from others' points of view--their son Max, Abe's student Alice, and Central Park itself. Abe and Jane are not perfect, but the story illustrates the beautiful love story between them, blemishes and all. Another important theme of the book is the importance of art and creativity in life. This book is an example of beautiful literary art, written like an ethereal stream of consciousness. It was difficult to get into for a while, but once I wrapped my head around it, I thought the writing style was perfect for this story of two artists. The language is beautiful. The words so carefully chosen to perfectly capture the moments and the emotions, creating visuals in my mind I won't soon forget.

Not everyone will like this book. This style of writing is not for everyone. But if you are a lover of the art of language in literature, I highly recommend reading this book. Be patient with it and it will take hold of you and not let go. It would be a great novel for book clubs. Some will love it, some will hate it, and the discussion will be fulfilling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for providing the arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This reads like a long poem. No quotation marks and it didn’t seem like there was much driving the plot forward to make me want to keep reading. DNF at 55% but I wanted to quit around 25%.

I'm sure there are other people who would enjoy this, but I am not one of them.

I told a friend this book is like poetry in prose form--reminiscent of Maggie Smith's exceptional memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful. If you're a book underliner like me, get that pencil ready. A beautiful ode to love.

This book is beautiful. Jane and Abe have been together for many years, living near and "in" Central Park with each other, friends, family, themselves. Near the end of Jane's life, she and Abe remember scenes from their life together.

Central Park is an important character as well. It houses people, it comforts people, it serves as a neutral, safe space.

I think the sentence structure is what moved me so much. The sentences were almost devoid of feeling, just statements of memories, if that makes sense.

Thank you to Penguin for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This story of Abe and Jane and their long time love with each other and a Central Park had such potential. I just couldn’t connect with it. The snippets of remembrance became irritating. It reminded me of Facebook posts when people post small sections of a story without giving context or the juicy bits. I needed more. This would have made a great short story collection with Central Park being the main character throughout.
The writing is clever and the author plainly has a lot of talent for the written word.
I’m sorry to say that I did not finish this. I didn’t even flick to the end. Ultimately, the love story didn’t grab me.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I did not finish the book. I found the narrative voice “I remember”. You remember” “I remember” irritating and I was unable to experience the story or the characters. Also, because the heart of the story being about a woman dying of cancer, for me there needs to be some points of light along the way. I could not find that here.

This book reads like a long poem. I like a story, and not a poem… or a list of sentences. It’s hard for me to get the point. The main character was unknown through two chapters. The beginning of chapter 3 looked like a very sad story about a person or people I didn’t know if I should care about. I stopped reading at that point.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This Is a Love Story tells the love story of Abe and Jane. They have been coming to Central Park for the last fifty years and the book documents their story with the park as their witness. I enjoyed reading about their lives, and the highs and lows of their last fifty years. I was excited to read this book but I struggled to finish this book. I struggled to connect to the story throughout the book.

At its core, This Is a Love Story is a love story between an artist and a writer, Jane and Abe, as they look back on all of the small moments and memories that comprised their life together. But it’s also a love letter to Central Park and New York City as a whole. Anyone who has spent time in New York will relate to the perfectly captured details, and it made me nostalgic for my own memories in Central Park and in my relationship.

The writing feels more like stream of consciousness, and the speaker often shifts, from Abe and Jane, to their son Max, to people in Central Park itself. With this changing structure, it can be a bit confusing at times to remember who’s speaking to whom. Yet the prose flows effortlessly, and it’s a book that you can completely fall into.

Beyond different types of love, this book also examines pain, the pursuit of art, postpartum depression, and a tenuous relationship between parent and child. Though the subject matter and some of the storylines could feel tired, Soffer offers a new perspective.

Central Park has watched the love story of Abe and Jane for decades, from the early stages of romance, through the struggles of parenting and now into the end stages of Jane’s cancer journey. Together they reminisce about their lives and their love, the highs and lows of their relationship.

Told from multiple perspectives, including that of Central Park, this story is simple yet powerful in the ways it illustrates these characters' lives and their love. Though heartbreaking, I particularly enjoyed the depiction of Jane’s experience with postpartum depression. The reader gets to see how her husband and her child remember that time in her life but reading it from her point of view was powerful.

This was so different! Like stories within stories. Very sweet and heartfelt at times. Never been to Central Park and now it makes me want to go there and just sit on a bench and people watch.