Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Genre: Fiction
Format: EBook

Mary Beth Latham has the perfect life. Three beautiful teenage children, a doctor husband, a thriving landscaping business and many close friends. Mary Beth deals with all the things mothers go through from sibling rivalry to her teenage daughter’s dating problems.

Her daughter, Ruby, breaks up with her boyfriend, Kiernan, during their senior year of high school. He’s been a family friend forever and he doesn’t take the breakup well. He not only loses Ruby after the breakup, but her family as well. Mary Beth isn’t very happy about the breakup either. She feels terrible for Kiernan.

Mary Beth’s son, Max, begins to have some serious problems with depression. Part of his problem is competing with his twin brother, who is much more popular in school than Max. She has her hands full trying to be there for both Ruby and Max.

Then there’s her husband, Glen. She loves him with all her heart, but their sex life has become mundane. However, she’s content with this and is happy with her family life.
As the Latham family prepares for Ruby’s graduation from high school, tragedy strikes their perfect life and nothing is ever the same again.

I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I thought I knew exactly how this story was going to end up, but I was totally blown away by what actually occurred. That’s all I’m going to say about the plot, though. You’ll have to read it for yourself to learn more

The first half of the book went slow for me. It was mostly dedicated to developing the characters and reading about Mary Beth’s normal family activities. There were many characters introduced and, at first, I had a hard time keeping them all straight in my head.
Later, the story took a violent turn, which was both heartbreaking and emotional.

This is the type of story that sticks with you long after you read the last page. I was really effected by it and thought about it quite often even when I wasn’t reading it. I would have given it 5 kitties, but the slowness of the beginning made me give it 4. I can highly recommend this book, especially if you like something that tugs at your heart strings, but don’t go anywhere near it if you are looking for a lighter read.