Review: Alternate Endings

Alternate Endings by Ali Rosen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Beatrice is a divorced mother of a precocious six-year old. She shares her brownstone with her former sister-in-law while her ex-husband lives in the basement. Their divorce has not been amicable and he finds fault with everything she does. Bea is the Chief Revenue Officer (I think) for a fancy start-up and loves her job, until her boss announces that she is getting divorced and moving to live in an Irish castle. Now Bea and the rest of the C-suite have to travel to Ireland twice a month for meetings, not something she wants to discuss with her ex-husband who is bound to kick-up a fuss and demand a change to their custody agreement.

Then when Bea arrives to the first meeting, jet-lagged and thoroughly dishevelled, she discovers that the new Chief Technology Officer is none-other than the boy who broke her heart in high school, Jake Sander. Twenty years ago at school Bea was the introvert nerd while Jake was the popular sports star, yet they bonded over art and developed a relationship. Bea thought they would openly date after high school but instead Jake refused to take her to prom and basically ghosted her.

As the months progress Bea and Jake enter into a colleagues with benefits arrangement while they are in Ireland, but they both have their 'reasons' for wanting nothing more.

This was okay, albeit the premise was a bit unrealistic, I mean really what CEO pulls that kind of caper and why did all the executives not just say no, but I could overlook that. Unfortunately Bea came with a gaggle of friends who all felt entitled to psychoanalyse her every move. Meanwhile in Ireland Jake takes it upon himself to force Bea into new experiences, whether its clay pigeon shooting, fishing, or relearning how to drive. Basically it all smacked of everyone knowing better than Bea about everything. Also Jake appeared to be a bit of a conundrum, on one hand he was making her do things 'for her own good' but on the other he was supportive and did little things to make her life easier. He felt more like a plot device than a real character.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

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