March 23, 2015
Dugan’s (author of the story collection So Much a Part of You) debut novel frames a tale of grief, loss, and healing around an unusual bargain. Best friends since ninth grade, Leo and Garrett took very different life paths. Leo’s a firefighter in Portland; Garrett’s a college professor in Boston. Leo fell in love with Audrey, married young, and had three sons; Garrett is still cycling through relationships well into his 30s. Still, there’s nobody Leo trusts more than Garrett—to the point that, one drunken night
in 1999, Leo extracts a promise from Garrett: if anything ever happens to Leo, Garrett must marry Audrey and raise the kids. When a skiing accident takes Leo’s life 12 years later, Garrett feels he has no choice—he drops everything and buys a one-way plane ticket, planning to uphold at least the part of the deal where he takes care of Leo’s family. Tasks such as finishing household construction projects and chaperoning field trips come easily to Garrett, and everyone begins to move forward. But when Garrett and Audrey begin having feelings for each other, things get a little more complicated, especially once Audrey learns about Leo and Garrett’s years-old pact. Told from the shifting perspectives of Garrett, Audrey, and her three sons, Dugan’s five narrators are too similar and not quite flawed enough to be credible. Though there
are genuinely touching moments and Portland comes alive on the page, the story coasts flatly to a tidy, predictable resolution.
March 15, 2015
In Dugan's second book (So Much a Part of You, 2014), a deal made by two drunk friends leads unexpectedly to true romance. On New Year's Eve 1999, Portland firefighter Leo McGeary gets his best friend, Garrett Reese, to sign a scribbled agreement. The agreement states that in the event of Leo's death, Garrett will marry his widow. To Garrett, the agreement is a joke. He saves it as a keepsake, "an unlikely souvenir," and goes on with his life on the other side of the country in Boston. Garrett, who has never committed to a long-term relationship, isn't exactly husband material, but in 2012,when Leo is killed in a skiing accident, he quits his job, leaves his girlfriend, and rushes to Portland to help Audrey finish building an addition to the house that Leo started before his death. Against his own better judgment, Garrett moves into the house with Leo's grieving wife and three sons, Brian, Christopher, and Andrew. It's almost inevitable that he and Audrey become lovers, but in their complicated situation, they both have trouble figuring out their true feelings. Audrey, who knows nothing about the deal, can't separate her desire for Garrett from her feelings of loss and loneliness. Garrett, on the other hand, doesn't know if he's keeping a promise he didn't intend to make or if Audrey's been the woman for him all along. Dugan doesn't rush Garrett and Audrey into a relationship. Each character, including the three boys, gets to tell his or her own story of grief, loss, and hope. Although the adult voices are a little too similar, the reader gets a real sense of how awkward, tentative, and confusing these deepening relationships can be. There is tender romance here, but it's more richly a story of an old family falling away and a new one beginning.
April 15, 2015
Firefighter Leo McGeary wanted his family to be prepared for possible future disasters. Early in his marriage to Audrey, he convinces his best friend Garrett to commit to marrying her in the event of Leo's death. The pact is almost forgotten until years later when Leo dies in a tragic accident. Knowing that Audrey needs help, Garrett puts his freewheeling bachelor lifestyle on hold for a few months to be there for his best friend's widow and her three sons. He quickly becomes an integral part of the family as they each deal with the loss of Leo. As Audrey and Garrett grow closer emotionally, their fragile relationship is threatened when she learns about Leo and Garrett's deal. VERDICT By alternating among the perspectives of the various characters, Dugan's first novel (after her story collection So Much a Part of You) intimately explores how grief can affect a family. The author provides a quick, unsurprising read that delves into family relationships in the wake of loss and new love, topics reminiscent of Anne Tyler's novels. [See Prepub Alert, 11/17/14.]--Joy Gunn, Paseo Verde Lib., Henderson, NV
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 15, 2015
One New Year's Eve, Leo makes an unusual request. He asks his best friend, Garrett, to sign a pledge promising to marry Audrey, Leo's wife, in the event of Leo's death. Neither man takes the pledge too seriously at the time, but 12 years later, Leo is killed in a skiing accident on Mt. Hood, and Garrett arrives from Boston for the funeral with the pledge tucked in his bag. He moves in with Audrey and her three boys, ostensibly to finish work on a house addition Leo started before he died, and as time passes, he begins to fill up some of the void in the boys' lives, as well as in Audrey's bed. Audrey's discovery of the pledge leads to a crisis that forces both her and Garrett to come to terms with what they really want. Dugan (So Much a Part of You, 2014) offers few surprises. But the novel, with Audrey, Garrett, and the three boys each taking turn as narrator, is a sensitive portrayal of friendship, family, and loss that appeals to readers who appreciate believable domestic fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)