Review of Love All the Way

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Karen Ashton 1
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Review of Love All the Way

Post by Karen Ashton 1 »

[Following is a volunteer review of "Love All the Way" by Aurora Carafa.]
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4 out of 5 stars
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Love all the way is an emotional journey, navigating same sex relationships through the early seventies in USA. The 3-year storyline takes you along with Mel and Allen as they navigate their deep friendship between a straight woman and a gay man. Each of the secondary main characters throughout the story have their own struggles to contend with that only adds to the depth of the storyline.
The back story of introducing and developing the story through the fashion industry is brief and confusing at times. It is slightly unbelievable that a friendship and working relationship would come from such a slight meeting and makes the story hard to get involved in but, once the author begins to focus on the characters, their interactions and feelings, you are able to fall into their world and the book is hard to put down.
The story introduces brief characters that are obviously uncomfortable with the lifestyles and choices of Mel and Allen, but doesn’t elaborate, mentioning a look or a reaction but nothing further. There is also the introduction of additional gay and lesbian characters that seem to have no relevance but are only there to highlight the diversity of their social circle. The focus of the story is on finding acceptance and normality of each friendship and relationship in your social circle.
The emotional relationship between Mel and Allen is beautifully written. The reader is taken though every emotion with the two lead characters. The family that develops is a weird and wonderful jumble of people that, although confusing at first, seems to work perfectly. It helps you to understand what same sex relationships went through in the early seventies, and that, to some extent highlights situations that are still misunderstood even today. The working relationship between Allen and Mel is glossed over and at times is hard to understand for someone who doesn’t know the fashion industry. The author introduces extra characters to help you see how influential and successful the couple’s collaboration is without going into excessive detail. The ending is perfect and completes the story.
There are three sex scenes (27%, 28% & 80%) but each is tastefully addressed, and essential to the story. There is a perfect amount of relevant detail without it becoming crude. (Scale 2/5)
Rating 4/5 - The overall writing is good but in places it can be confusing to follow which character is speaking. It does take a few chapters to get into the story which I did re-read on finishing the book to pick up on small details I had missed due to the amount of detail and rushed storyline the author employs to get all the main characters into place.

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Love All the Way
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