I have to admit that I don’t often read romance novels. Maybe this is because the one thing that all romances have in common is that there is always a happy ending, and maybe I’m too much of a skeptic. But today, I am recommending Katherine Center’s latest novel, How to Walk Away—a book that shows us that there are all kinds of happy endings.
Twenty-eight year-old Maggie Jacobsen seems to have it all—a new condo, a dream job offer, and a handsome boyfriend who she is certain is about to propose. And on Valentine’s Day, her boyfriend Chip, who is working on his pilot’s license, convinces Maggie to come flying with him and he does propose to her—and that’s where the fairy tale ends. The plane crashes, and Maggie is left with severe burns and a spinal cord injury. Chip walks away from the crash with barely a scratch but all of the guilt of “ruining” Maggie’s life. So Maggie is left with only her family to depend on—a well-meaning but controlling mother, a father who tries to find ways to motivate her, and an estranged “black-sheep” sister who returns to town after Maggie’s accident.
A story that could be depressing and bleak or unrealistically sweet ends up being neither. Maggie faces highs and lows as she works towards recovery with a difficult physical therapist. She learns the secret that caused her sister to walk away from her family years ago, and she learns to take control of her life in the wake of her own personal tragedy. As Maggie says, “You have to live the life you have. You have to find inspiration in the struggle and pull joy out of the hardship” because love happens all the time.
Stop by the Sioux City Public Library to check out How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, and other feel-good fiction with happy endings today.
---
Support for Check It Out comes from Avery Brothers.
