Sweet Pear

Rating: 2 out of 5

So Sweet Pear is about Elle, a writer, who is married to Ryan, a chef. Yet, when the novel begins Elle has woken up in bed beside none other than her ex-boyfriend Josh. Only to quickly discover that she and Josh are married. Apparently somehow Elle has woken up in another universe where she never met Ryan and they never met Ryan because in this world she never made the decision which led to her meeting him. Instead she discovers that she has married Josh. With the help of her friend she works to uncover what happened to her.

This book was a quick read but a difficult one. The book just sort of jumped into the alternate world without much introduction and I'm still confused as to what happened and why. Very quickly I found myself annoyed because drinking is like the main character feature and focus of this book. Elle ends up in an alternate reality after getting drunk and making out with Josh. She then ends up back in her world after getting drunk. Drinking is like the only thing any of these characters do.

I quickly found it hard to connect with Elle who spends most of the time complaining about how she was unhappy in her relationship with Josh because he left her alone and gas lit her. Even in this new world when he appears to be trying she is pining after Ryan, who it should be mentioned she was complaining about for leaving her alone in the alternate world. Elle doesn't seem to be satisfied with her love life on either front and when with Ryan she thinks of Josh and when with Josh she thinks of Ryan. Elle is just written as someone who cannot be happy no matter what if she is getting exactly what she wants. It seemed like the whole time she was actively sabotaging herself.

The novel ends with no clear resolution for any of the characters and everything feels unresolved and unanswered. The only thing that I was able to determine for sure is that I don't think Ryan and Josh were the true problems in the relationships. Elle seems to have some self-realizations but again this isn't addressed in depth or even explored. This novel was a huge disconnect for me.