You, Me, Everything
Catherine Isaac
Penguin Books
Ten years ago Jess Pendleton went through childbirth with only her mother to support her. Her partner Adam failed to respond to any of the frantic messages telling him to get to the hospital. When he finally showed up it was obvious he’d been with another woman, one of many who’d thrown themselves at the handsome and charismatic Adam over the years. It was the final straw. Jess left him and brought up their son William almost single handed.
Ten years later Jess and William are staying with Adam for the summer at the hotel he renovated in the beautiful Dordogne region of France. For all their history and his faults, Adam is a gracious host—but Jess needs more from him. She needs Adam to take responsibility as a father to William before the inherited genetic time-bomb inside her renders Jess as helpless as her dying mother. But Adam treats William more like a favorite nephew than his son. Jess has to change this, but she doesn’t want to guilt Adam over her condition. She can’t deny his old charm affects her deeply, especially as Adam shows his still vibrant desire for her. When Adam divulges the real reason he wasn’t at the hospital that night, it changes everything. Can Jess let bygones be bygones and find a new future for their son, even if she might not share in it?
Bittersweet, funny and heartbreaking …
You, Me, Everything is a tour de force of a novel. The characters and the French countryside come alive under Catherine Isaac’s deft touch. Bittersweet, funny and heartbreaking, it has the reader rooting for Jess, William and Adam as they strive to deal with the hand life has dealt them.
