Leaving Before It’s Over
Jean Reynolds Page

HarperCollins Publishers
August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-06-187692-9
Family Fiction / General
Amazon

Reviewed by Cyndi Wright

title Roy and Rosalind Vines have built a satisfying, loving life with their two daughters – and even if there’s no extra money, the family is strong and happy. That all threatens to come undone when Rosalind learns she has a serious illness that needs specialists and expensive treatment to combat. Roy must turn to the wealthy family he shut the door on when he married Rosalind against their wishes.

The couple has struggled with unnecessary guilt through their married life – since Roy was already married when they met. Because they both have strong moral compasses, unlike the family Roy left behind, they never acted on the attraction they felt upon meeting. They only married after Roy’s wife had an affair with Roy’s evil twin brother, Mont.

To make matters even more complicated, there was a child born of the affair Roy’s wife had. After her death, the boy has been raised by the family Roy left behind. The child believes he is Roy’s son and has been abandoned. When Roy shows up with hat in hand, his family puts a condition on giving him the money he needs for Rosalind’s treatment – he must take the troubled teenage boy back home with him.

Although there is an unnecessary and somewhat implausible twist to the story that is introduced late and is supposed to assuage the guilt Roy and Rosalind feel about the way they got together, Jean Reynolds Page has characters and situations that are believable and that spring off the page. Although this book is not categorized as a thriller, but more of a family drama, it’s still a page turner. It’s a tale with several story lines that illustrate human frailty as well as human strength. It’s a story about good triumphing over bad, and the reader will be cheering and booing in the appropriate places.

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