Life As I Know It-Melanie Rose

Life As I Know It
Melanie Rose
Bantam, Feb 9 2010, $15.00
ISBN: 9780385343992

Jessica Taylor is walking her dog Frankie when the rain turned ugly with wind, lightning and thunder. She struggles to leave the Downs when a Labrador runs up to them. A man catches up to her and the two canines. He thanks her as his dog got loose and offers her a ride. She feels lightning strike her heart as Jessica falls in love at first sight; only lightning literally strikes her body leaving her dead.

Jessica awakens n a hospital in which everyone calls her Mrs. Lauren Richardson, wife to Grant and mother of four children (Sophie, Nicole, Toby and Teddy). The kids are well behaved, but Jessica feels their sadness as order is their life. She loves each of the children especially brain damaged Teddy and connects with Lauren’s sister Karen who she confides in that her memories are that of single in love Jessica Taylor and not that of mother and wife Mrs. Lauren Richardson.

On the surface Life As I Know It is a lighthearted romp that compares and a single career woman with a married mother. However, Melanie Rose’s contemporary is actually much deeper with a subtle profundity that stuns the audience even with knowing how the tale will end. The light touch enhances the sobering finish that will have readers understand the real intent is not comparing lifestyles, but instead making a powerful case that being a woman means sacrificing personal desires to make a better life for loved ones.

Harriet Klausner