Review of Love All the Way
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Angela Fetcher
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- Latest Review: Love All the Way by Aurora Carafa
Review of Love All the Way
[Following is a volunteer review of "Love All the Way" by Aurora Carafa.]
Love All the Way by Aurora Carafa is a story about the power of love in all of its forms. Melanie, a down-on-her luck straight woman, and Allen, a trusting gay man, become instant friends when Mel intervenes in the sticky situation in which Allen finds himself, defending him against a man that hates gay people. Mel and Allen’s friendship develops into stronger feelings when she moves in with him to help with his fashion clothing line. Together, Mel and Allen face bigotry, hatred and the challenges of life, including Allen not being able to return Mel’s love in the way she wants. Despite these challenges, these two characters find that the love between them helps them build a family and that the members of their unconventional family make them stronger and able to face anything, even illness and loss. Love All the Way explores not only the trials and tribulations of this family, but the struggles of the LGBTQ community during the 1970s.
Carafa’s story tugs at the heartstrings. While Mel and Allen are different in temperament and background, their love for one another is the common thread throughout the book. Even when it is hard for Mel (and occasionally Allen) to let go of hurt feelings when her love is not returned in the same way she wants to give it, Mel and Allen find a way to make each other happy and let each other be happy with others. Especially poignant are the parts of Love All the Way where Mel, Allen and their family are facing challenges, be it violent lovers, deaths in the family or illness. They do it with style, grace and always with humor. Both Mel and Allen are generous both with strangers and those they love, sometimes with little care for themselves. Allen especially is a beacon of light, and both friends and strangers seem to love to be in his presence due to his generosity. I love that we get to experience all of the ups and downs of the characters’ lives, while wondering about the outcome because of their struggles. I cried several times throughout the book. Carafa tells a story that allows you to be in the characters’ shoes to feel what they feel, specifically during the scenes of loss and death, and being able to face both with dignity.
While there are several places in the book where the story seems to skip some important steps, such as how the relationship between Mel and Allen developed from a new friendship to love, overall, the story is well written. There are many typos, spacing issues, missing commas, paragraph errors and even some points of inconsistency. While these can and should be fixed, as they cause interruptions to the reading of the story, the story itself is exceptional.
I would rate Love All the Way a 4 out of 5 stars because, while the story was great and made me cry a number of times, the typos and lack of proper editing made it difficult to read at points. However, I note that if these items are fixed, it may warrant a 5 out of 5 stars due to the powerful story.
I would recommend Love All the Way for adults only, as there are explicit sexual scenes in the book.
******
Love All the Way
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Love All the Way by Aurora Carafa is a story about the power of love in all of its forms. Melanie, a down-on-her luck straight woman, and Allen, a trusting gay man, become instant friends when Mel intervenes in the sticky situation in which Allen finds himself, defending him against a man that hates gay people. Mel and Allen’s friendship develops into stronger feelings when she moves in with him to help with his fashion clothing line. Together, Mel and Allen face bigotry, hatred and the challenges of life, including Allen not being able to return Mel’s love in the way she wants. Despite these challenges, these two characters find that the love between them helps them build a family and that the members of their unconventional family make them stronger and able to face anything, even illness and loss. Love All the Way explores not only the trials and tribulations of this family, but the struggles of the LGBTQ community during the 1970s.
Carafa’s story tugs at the heartstrings. While Mel and Allen are different in temperament and background, their love for one another is the common thread throughout the book. Even when it is hard for Mel (and occasionally Allen) to let go of hurt feelings when her love is not returned in the same way she wants to give it, Mel and Allen find a way to make each other happy and let each other be happy with others. Especially poignant are the parts of Love All the Way where Mel, Allen and their family are facing challenges, be it violent lovers, deaths in the family or illness. They do it with style, grace and always with humor. Both Mel and Allen are generous both with strangers and those they love, sometimes with little care for themselves. Allen especially is a beacon of light, and both friends and strangers seem to love to be in his presence due to his generosity. I love that we get to experience all of the ups and downs of the characters’ lives, while wondering about the outcome because of their struggles. I cried several times throughout the book. Carafa tells a story that allows you to be in the characters’ shoes to feel what they feel, specifically during the scenes of loss and death, and being able to face both with dignity.
While there are several places in the book where the story seems to skip some important steps, such as how the relationship between Mel and Allen developed from a new friendship to love, overall, the story is well written. There are many typos, spacing issues, missing commas, paragraph errors and even some points of inconsistency. While these can and should be fixed, as they cause interruptions to the reading of the story, the story itself is exceptional.
I would rate Love All the Way a 4 out of 5 stars because, while the story was great and made me cry a number of times, the typos and lack of proper editing made it difficult to read at points. However, I note that if these items are fixed, it may warrant a 5 out of 5 stars due to the powerful story.
I would recommend Love All the Way for adults only, as there are explicit sexual scenes in the book.
******
Love All the Way
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Love All the Way by Aurora Carafa
