I really wanted to like this novel, especially with its press and pick as a Read with Jenna book. However, I just couldn't get into it. The style of looking back at a relationship through Central Park in New York just didn't land for me as a reader.

This was as much of a love story about a couple reflecting back on their life together as it was a love letter to New York City and Central Park in particular. Abe and Jane have been together for years and as Jane lies dying, Abe recounts their years together as young lovers, exhausted parents and struggling artists. Written with lyrical prose, I found this a slow moving story and I just couldn't get in the mood to finish it right now. Perhaps I will try again another time but for me right now it was a DNF. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

I understand the desire to be different or to offer a unique way of talking to the reader. However,properly formatted dialogue and some other simple edits would have made this book absolutely amazing.
As it is, the novel makes it hard to figure out who is talking to whom, who’s remembering what, and how are all these people connected. Once you get into it, it gets a bit easier, but still. I forgot who some of the characters were by the time I would resurface from another “I remember - You remember” stream of consciousness. This book was like a thick fog at times.
Which is a shame, because it is also beautiful, smart, and funny at times. Especially the observational notes on the people and happenings in the park. But these delightful moments get lost in the muck of the weirdly written and formatted prose. It is a love story, and a good one. But you will have to fight through the mud to read it.
Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

I had high hopes for this book. Set in Central Park and a love story was a perfect combination to get me motivated. Yes, it was a true love story with its ups and downs, in sickness and health. However, the writing style didn’t do it for me. On the bright side, I adored the ode to Central Park and long to return someday.

I absolutely adored this book. The author made Central Park, yes, the park in NYC, a main character and witness to Abe and Jane's life and love and pain and healing. After 50 years together, Jane is now terminally ill and Abe is reminiscing with her and she lays dying. I thought the book was beautiful testament to the real ups and downs life often throws at you. It was an intimate look at marriage and relationships and the little bits in between. This reminds me a lot of The Most Fun We Ever Had by Clare Lombardo, another emotionally rich saga. This book won't be for everyone but it hit just right for me.

This is the love story between Abe and Jane and Central Park. I was bummed when I went to New York that I was unable to go to Central Park but I feel as if I have seen it now in the very descriptive story telling. I enjoyed following the long 50 year relationship between them. So much was involving their times in the park. What I didn't enjoy was the way the author had a constant repetition with her writing. They would be talking about something happening and then maybe not. We liked the dinner or did we? Things like that. That was very off=putting to me but other than that, it was a good well-rounded story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Dutton for this copy for review.

Well this one is definitely unique. It starts out in the second person narrative and Abe is talking to his wife Jane who has been diagnosed with cancer. But then the narrative switches and it just got to be a tad too all over the place and a bit too much for me. I was interested in the story but ultimately I felt like it didn’t really go anywhere. I also really didn’t like their son Max as a character. I get that he was struggling with his mom’s decline, but man up dude!

On the bright side it is a true ode to New York, especially Central Park, and as a New Yorker it felt like a beautiful depiction of the vibrant city I once lived in. There are some touching lines in this one about marriage and family, but overall it fell flat for me.

I wanted to love this one, but the writing style just didn't work f or me. Endless paragraphs beginning with "You remember." It flowed well at first but just didn't work in the long term.

What I thought I was getting with this story ended up being COMPLETELY different but it in the BEST way possible!

I don't know about you but I go into so many books completely blind, often based on cover or title or repeat favorite author alone. I love to be surprised by the plot, the characters, and the feelings that are evoked from a thoughtful story.

I am a character-driven reader. I LOVE characters and what they feel and think and do and why and why not and this story had all of that. I also love to read stories that leave an imprint, that make me think, that make me grateful and Abe and Jane did just that. If you think this is a romance, it is, in my opinion, but it is also not, and you just need to read it to understand that.

This is my first read by Jessica Soffer and her writing is very unique. It is lyrical and soulful. I found myself highlighting so much of this story. I loved the way it was told. I loved that you get multiple perspectives including that of Central Park in New York City. I am a Jersey girl and have never been to Central Park. Not sure what I have been doing with my life but I will DEFINITLY be visiting now! I love all the little facts I learned about the park. It is probably one of the more interesting characters I have met in a book.

I really, really don’t want to give anything away. Just know that this story will be one you are going to remember for some time to come. It will be one that will make you think, make you feel, make you reflect. It is one that I highly recommend.

@duttonbooks | #gifted 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗦 𝗔 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 by Jessica Soffer is exactly that, but not in the ways you might imagine. At its heart are Abe and Jane, married for more than 50 years. The two are recalling their lives together as Jane is dying of cancer. Both are creatives, he an author and she an artist. Their artistic lives are a big part of what they recall, as is their son, Jake. ⁣
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The story is told from many perspectives including Jane, Abe, Jake and others. Their lives were not always easy, in fact much of the time tensions were high, and their recollections reflect all that. My favorite chapters were told from the perspective of Central Park, a place that all three family members loved. That was truly a masterful choice by Soffer. I liked all of this: the relationships, their career arcs, the role illness played in their lives, NYC, the park. All of that!⁣
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What I grew weary of was Soffer’s writing style. She shifted between first, second and third person and I found the switches jarring. She also didn’t use quotation marks which normally doesn’t bother me, but in the second person sections, it was often confusing who was remembering things, Abe or Jane? The further I got in the book, the easier it became, but I never loved it or found it lyrical the way other readers have. ⁣
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It’s difficult for me not to compare this to a January release, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 by Jonathan Evison. The two books have much in common with Evison’s being a more traditional reading experience, but every bit as touching. While I appreciate Soffer’s overall story, the writing itself was just too stilted and choppy for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫✨

PUB DAY REVIEW: Every once in a while I read an advanced copy of an upcoming book - thank you @duttonbooks for the #gifted copy of THIS IS A LOVE STORY.

You’re going to be seeing this book everywhere - it’s the Barnes and Noble and Read With Jenna Book Club pick for February and grab your tissues because it is a weeper.

Abe and Jane have been married for fifty years but Jane is dying. Now at the end of her life Abe spends his days retelling their memories of a life built together. In the first chapter he recounts their early moments together, their first meeting, the parts of each other that drew them like magnets together.

“I remember we lay on a blanket, our sweaters rolled up under our heads, and watched the sky. I remember how you made time expand. I remember you turned to me and said, Isn’t this something? Just being here? It is, I said. I remember, with you, the reel stopped running. Like: I am. You are. This is enough. Please stay.“

The story is emotional and poignant, but what I found unique about this book is the writing style. This is an element that is going to make or break the book for a lot of readers. While the writing is beautifully lyrical, the story is told in an almost stream of consciousness style like this:

“You remember I kept my hand on your back as if you were a stray egg—and that we never stopped talking, laughing, telling each other everything. What exactly? you say.”

The format was at first hard to follow and took a little time for me to fully catch on to. We not only hear Abe’s memories but also Jane’s and those of their son Max. While this is a love story about two people and the life they made it is also a love letter to New York City’s Central Park. The Park is featured prominently throughout the book and at times is its own character.

While I loved the story and found a lot of the writing to be simply beautiful, it was the style that held me back from fully enjoying this. The employment of “you remember” and “I remember” to start most sentences was at times tricky for me to follow and pulled me out of the narrative. That said, THIS IS A LOVE STORY is a beautifully written tale of love and marriage spanning a lifetime.

A journey through the remembered lives of husband and wife Abe and Jane as she is dying and Interspersed with the stories of their loved ones. A unique look at the many facets of lifelong love and the challenges of parenting, grief, and the importance of art. Unconventional pacing, format and sentence structures make for an unusual read.

This isn’t really a love story or a typical romance. But it is a nostalgic and reflective love letter- to a long relationship and marriage with lots of history, and to Central Park which is an anchor in the narrator’s memories and emotions.

For readers who appreciate lyrical prose, atmospheric writing and don’t mind second-person. If you’re in the mood for something fast-paced or plot-driven, save this for a moment when you are looking for something introspective and quiet- a narrative of vignettes, a meditation on memory, and on the ways that love evolves over time and with reflection.

I found this to be a beautiful story and the writing style to be incredibly unique. Can’t wait to get this in reader’s hands!

If you enjoyed The Days I Loved You Most by Amy Neff, then I believe you will like This is a Love Story. Both focus on an elderly couple looking back over their lives and pinpointing both important and seemingly throwaway moments in time. I found the writing style interesting here and am not a big fan of second person so it did make it a little difficult for me, but overall a sweet story.

Jane and Abe have been in love, and been married for decades. Now Jane is dying, and they take turns remembering people and events from their lives together. They don’t shy away from remembering the difficult times too, because that is all part of the story.
I did not understand the portions about Central Park in New York, and had trouble tying them in to Abe and jane's story, especially since they moved away from the city in their later years together.

I know that this one wasn't for everybody, but I quite enjoyed it. I loved seeing the story through different perspectives and the characters were lovely.

I was given an advance reader copy of this title by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Very poignant portrayal of love and loss that touched me deeply. Loved that it was centered around nyc and Central Park, genius!

This was a very sad book. Reliving s life from the end of a life is hard - but this one is told with love of Central Park, art and imperfect people. It was an easy read and enters your thoughts days after reading. Definitely glad I read it.

The story of a marriage over the years as the wife is faced with a terminal illness. I really disliked the writing style of this book. The only thing I liked about the book was that it is also a love story of Central Park.