bezweifeln

When I started reading this story I was instantly under the impression that it took place in the 90's and possessed elements I have seen friends describe as über fiction with the tall brunette and little blond characters. I never watch TV so I am not familiar enough that issue though. Looking at the copyright page showed me that this was written in 1997 but there are no cultural references which was quite welcome and the story was not harmed by them.

The brunette in the story, or the love interest, has it together and is secure with herself and her surroundings. She is a confident woman older than the main character. The main character is racked with self-doubt and criticism as a reaction to her youth and her horrible marriage. The man to whom she was married is/was a real creep who systematically played with the woman's lack of confidence and seemingly did everything he could to worsen her state under the guise of trying to help her. I was once filled with self-doubt myself so I am very sympathetic to her efforts to escape this state of mind.

The sexuality of both women is fluid, or was enough in the past, and it took love and sex with a woman for them to realize their lives could be just that much better. I wish the main character had gained more self-confidence before the love was found as some of this feels unbalanced, similar to a teacher/student relationship. I prefer the characters to be on level footing when beginning a relationship.

Most everything in this story is routine (by now in 2016) which does not quite explain why I stayed up late, too late, to finish the book, only stopping when the battery of my Kindle died. There were few minor characters. It has the crotchety old woman talking about the good old days and what or was not 'natural'. A nice guy introduced as a possible love interest when I thought the issue had been settled and a real asshole ex-husband who I found myself wishing for an inexplicable lightning strike to take him out of the story. I really liked the main character, with all of her weaknesses and was glad for her eventual success and the older woman was superb as a gentle, intelligent woman.

I wish there had been more Australianisms as this could have taken place on the shores of Lake Michigan with the native American legend of Sleeping Bear for example. That's just me though and I doubt this would affect anyone else.

I think the story was well written and it engaged me, rooting for the main character as I was. I only rate this book three stars as it did not become one of my favorites and I doubt I would reread the story. I think on Amazon I would have given four stars with the way they word the rating system.