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LEAN ON ME
Beth Moran
Boldwood Books
March 4th, 2024
320 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon
I have loved many other books by this author Because You Loved Me and Let It Snow immediately come to mind. But Lean on Me didn’t have the same magic as Beth Moran’s other books. Maybe my expectations were too high?
I think the biggest problem I had was the main character, Faith. I didn’t like her at all. She was using Perry for his money and even though she was doing it for her brother and not herself I just couldn’t stand her for that reason. Faith didn’t tell Perry her secret but she told a near stranger, Dylan, almost right away. I think she liked to use her brother, Sam as an excuse for not getting her shit together and there is proof of that with the way she treated April. She was also pretty weak for someone who lived through what she did, she didn’t stand up for herself to her future mother-in-law, Larissa, I would have told her what’s what. I also didn’t buy into the whole let’s wait until marriage spiel she gave Perry. It’s not like she’s some holy virgin that’s all pure and innocent so I can’t imagine a guy in his 30s waiting like that, marriage of convenience or not. I also didn’t like Faith and the minister flirting while she is engaged to someone else and he’s the one who will be performing the wedding ceremony.
So let’s get to the good parts. I loved all the diverse side characters from the choir. The sense of women coming together and making each other stronger and having more self-esteem really resonated with me. I loved the feeling of community the women had. Heaster is a force to be reckoned with and she stole my heart with her take-charge attitude and making these women love themselves and each other. Marilyn is the type of friend every woman wishes and deserves to have.
This story was equal parts sad and heartwarming and filled with hope but Lean on Me failed to deliver a likable main character and I almost DNF it. I was not invested in Faith and I did not care what happened to her, Perry deserved much better.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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