– by Jenny Frame
Jenny Frame‘s latest work, “Someone To Love,” is a spin-off of her previous book, “Unexpected,” which I really enjoyed very much specifically because of the originality of the story and how Frame executed it with heartwarming resonance. In the story, there was an antagonistic character, Trent, who was one of the MCs’ (Becca) ex, who really piqued my curiosity as I thought there was potential in expanding her storyline. And voila! Before I knew it, Frame announced that she would write a spin-off with Trent as the MC! Thus born this Book 2 of the Unexpected Romance series. Needless to say, I enjoyed exploring Trent’s back story and what made her who she was. Also, I always find it intriguing to explore a character who starts off as an antagonist in one circumstance but transforms into a protagonist when the POV turns to that individual in a new environment and set of circumstances, thus, making her an even more layered character altogether.
Essentially, this story was an age-gap, second chance, and a totally unexpected romance between Trent, a 40-year-old divorce lawyer, who was still licking her wounds, mentally and emotionally, even years after she and Becca ended their relationship, and Wendy, a 26-year-old “au pair” aka nanny, who left the country to nurse her heartbreak 5 years ago and only just returned to London after working as a nanny to various families from different countries. How did these two individuals, both having experienced a major heartbreak in their love lives, from totally different backgrounds, not to mention, polar opposites in every sense of the word, cross paths, you might ask. Well, as serendipity goes, you’d never know what’s lurking around the corner waiting to steal your heart just when you least expect it and when it strikes, there’s no escape, no matter how hard you try. Despite Trent being hopelessly averse to having kids in her life and Wendy who loved kids, always dreaming of having a family of her own, it was Trent’s sudden “inheritance” of two kids (from her cousin who died from a sudden tragic accident with no next of kin except her, their godmother!) who effectively ended her “freedom of singlehood” that brought Wendy into her life! Fate, it seemed, was not without a sense of irony, was it? (channeling Morpheus!)
I enjoyed exploring how Trent and Wendy’s initial encounter that was laced with awkwardness and discomfort as both tried to establish their positions as employer/employee, guardian/nanny, in the presence of Alice, 11, and Noah, 6, both representing different symbols to them (a fear factor for Trent, which as I discovered, had everything to do with her childhood, and a culmination of pure love and affection for Wendy!), but as time went on, their relationship became more friendly albeit cautiously guarded, to eventually becoming more than platonic, much to their chagrin, respectively, for reasons they held dear in their hearts. But, when cupid strikes…. Frame has a knack for moulding romances that aren’t clear cut or absolute at first, despite the presence of attraction, but takes her readers to her characters’ journey of reconciliation and acceptance with heartwarming effect. This romance was no exception. In fact, Frame upped the game by adding in 2 kids into the fold, thus, complicating the otherwise smoother journey toward romance, which made Trent and Wendy’s romance more multi-dimensional! At least for me, it did!
I loved Trent’s character. Besides being an aloof, awkward, ice queen-type persona who had absolutely no clue about raising any children, I was thrilled that Frame had crafted a layered back story of her past which she skilfully peeled off as the story progressed. Childhood trauma. I wasn’t expecting it, tbh. So when it was revealed, I was immediately intrigued and suddenly everything about Trent, her total aversion of having children in her life made sense to how she had been behaving since Book 1!
*Note: I feel like I should mention something here when it comes to women having children or not. I am a firm believer that it is perfectly ok and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a woman who chooses not to have or doesn’t want any children in their lives, be it giving birth to them or having them. When a woman decides not to have children, it doesn’t always mean that she had a traumatic past or a bad experience that caused her to decide not to have children. Sometimes a woman just doesn’t want to, period. If men can have that kind of freedom to choose whether they want kids or not, without any explanation or incurring a negative response from society at large, then women should be given the same treatment. Unfortunately, it s the social conditioning about women and their wombs, their maternal instincts, their existence as child-bearing tools, that has been ingrained in the society so deeply amongst men and women for generations, that some women themselves are the culpable parties for making others feel guilty for not wanting children without any “acceptable” reason. This mentality needs to be removed from the consciousness of humanity. That’s my firm believe and POV.
Back to Trent and her childhood trauma, I was fascinated with the psychological and emotional effects of what happened to her when she was a child growing up. I won’t divulge the reasons and circumstances revolving around her trauma here because the resonating effect needs to be experienced directly from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, by discovering it yourself from Frame’s carefully structured stages of the revelation that intertwined with Trent’s growing relationship with Wendy. Childhood trauma, as we all know, cast long shadows. Unlike adulthood trauma, a child is more than likely to block out any unsavoury, difficult, traumatic event that happens to them that their growing mind isn’t mature enough to grapple on to its meaning or effects. When a memory is blocked especially when it’s a negative experience, and left unresolved, it always has a way of seeping through, usually in adulthood when something external triggers it when the mind’s defence mechanism is no longer holding it as tightly as before or when the trigger is too strong that it penetrates into it, thereby activating the once blocked out memory. For Trent, it was the former, as a result of her growing relationship with Wendy.
In essence, Wendy was Trent’s catalyst when it came to her attitude toward Alice and Noah, and her mindset of having children in her life, in general. What was more captivating for me was to find out the correlation between Trent’s own childhood trauma and Alice’s fresh one (after witnessing her dad’s death in the flesh with all the horrors of a violent accident) that culminated into a full-blown PTSD. Speaking of Alice, I absolutely loved the development between she and Trent. The slow-burn rapport built between these two injured souls was written with grounded realism and authentic flair. My two favourite scenes from the book were of these two. One was when they were both in the car after Alice’s visit to her therapist. The “contract” negotiation between them was pure Trent-style which incidentally worked out perfectly for Alice’s character! You’ll know when you read it and discover that these two souls weren’t all that different after all! And, never underestimate the power of shared experiences regardless of whether they are positive or negative ones. The other favourite moment of mine was the zoo incident where Trent ended up finally having to open up a little of herself when she had the biggest scare of her life about Alice’s well-being! It was poignant and effective. The shift in Alice’s behaviour toward Trent was truly heartfelt as Frame managed to capture the inner psyche of both characters with emotional resonance. With all the “heavy” energy surrounding Trent and Alice as their relationship was explored from start to finish (but with a well-deserved uplifting result, no worries), Frame balanced that out with Noah as this utterly adorable, innocent and lovable 6-year-old who was obviously too young to grasp the depth of their father’s death. Needless to say, he was a delight every time he made an appearance in a scene.
Now, talking of Wendy, she’s basically the polar opposite of Trent, in every sense of the word! But that’s the beauty of it, innit? Opposites attract! I enjoyed the push-pull between them for reasons that you will discover when you read the book besides the obvious. But there was one thing that jumped out at me when exploring Wendy and Trent’s life journeys. One of Trent’s childhood traumas happened to coincide with Wendy’s own. The juxtaposition of their experiences, though, was portrayed with a keen sense of intrigue (for me, at least!) whether human behaviour is incontrovertibly causal whilst being irrelevant concerning whether reasons can be causes. Trent’s behaviour went the negative way when it came to her mindset about children, whereas Wendy adopted a positive state of mind regarding children. Was Trent’s negative or Wendy’s positive behaviour toward the same topic (children), the result of causality (trigger point) or reasoning (motive or justification) or both (trigger and motive)? Hmm…thoughts to ponder. Incidentally, it piqued my utterly curious and inquisitive mind. Bear in mind, though, this is just my own interpretation! Frame might not even have that thought when she wrote this! Oh well… that’s why art is interpretative, innit?
Anyway, the entire story was comprised of a series of unexpected relationships: An unexpected parenthood, an unexpected romance, an unexpected family, all wrapped around a compellingly told and written story about a group of individuals, adults and children alike, with secondary characters from Book 1 and the others, whose lives were destined to be entwined together. Trent and Wendy’s respective journeys of truth and reconciliation about their childhood traumas and their process of letting go before they could eventually commit to their mutual love for one another and spending their lives together as a family, were depicted with such heartwarming effect that it was almost fairy tale-like! All’s well that ends well, eh? Worth mentioning is, both Becca and Dale made an appearance as secondary characters, along with their kids. So there was definitely a sense of familiarity and warmth whilst reading this book!
All in all, I enjoyed this story very much, especially all the psychological nuances of every character, the meaning of family, and what mattered most in the end. Love. Acceptance. Letting go. If you’re a fan of lesbian romance or you’ve read Book 1, “Unexpected,” I’d definitely recommend you give this a read.
**I was given, with much thanks and appreciation, an ARC of this book, by BSB, in return for an honest review.
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