Swear on This Life

June 15, 2016
Carlino's sixth novel is a twofer: a book within a book--a fascinating mix of past and present, childhood and adulthood--that takes us back and forth in time and leaves us at the edge of the future.Emiline and Trevor are in a stale but stable relationship when Emi's roommate gives her a copy of the latest bestseller. As she reads the much-acclaimed debut novel, Emi realizes with shock that it's about her hardscrabble childhood, with details so accurate that she knows immediately it was written by Jason, her first love, whom she hasn't seen in over 10 years, "who had once been [her] everything...[her] first." Painful memories surface and vie with the hurt and anger she feels toward him for dropping out of her life and stealing the story that's hers to tell and, worse, writing it as if she were the narrator. The chapters alternate between Emi's current life and her childhood, with the most compelling parts of the book being the retelling of her youth. The grown-up Emi proves a little obtuse and more naive than expected given her introspective nature as a child; however, it's clear that the pain of Jason's abandonment has clouded her vision. She struggles to reconcile the past and present and her feelings for her two loves. Readers may feel the urge to say, "Emi, seriously! Finish reading the book!" She stalls, taking forever to reach the last chapter, where, of course, it all falls into perspective. Still, there are twists and turns that will keep readers guessing. Carlino fans will love this one, and so will readers who have not yet made her acquaintance. The tale is engaging and paced to keep the pages turning long after the lights should be out.

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July 1, 2016

Imagine picking up a novel that everyone is reading and talking about and quickly realizing that it is your own life story. That happens to Emiline, an adjunct writing instructor in San Diego, who is struggling with her writing career and personal life. She knows that the author, J. Colby, must be Jase, the childhood best friend whom she has not seen or heard from in over a decade. Emi and Jase bonded as children growing up in dysfunctional families at the end of a dirt road in rural Ohio. They helped each other survive and eventually fell in love. Emi cannot understand how Jase would exploit their past in this way and especially why he would tell the story from her point of view. Meanwhile, she must deal with knowing that she has never been able to commit wholeheartedly to her boyfriend or to her writing. This is a novel within a novel, in which chapters from Jase's book serve as flashbacks to the past. It all leads to a dramatic reunion. VERDICT Romance fans will find this heartfelt story of resilience and first love hard to put down.--Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
Mysterious debut novelist J. Colby publishes All the Roads Between, and it quickly becomes a national best-seller, leaving multitudes of women swooning over the coming-of-age love story of Jackson and Emerson, two star-crossed lovers who meet as children, rely on each other as abused teenagers, and are torn apart by fate. Sigh. Writing professor Emiline wouldn't normally go near this kind of stuffnot literary enoughbut her roommate finally persuades her to read it. What the heck, might as well see what everyone's buzzing about, right? Emi is drawn in from the very first pagebecause it's about her. She's Emerson, and her best friend from childhood, Jason, has to be author J. Colby. When she tracks him down at a book signing, she's prepared to rip him a new one for exploiting her life but finds she really only wants him to explain why he abandoned her. Readers are treated throughout to passages of the well-crafted fictional novel and will find themselves simply smitten by both the novel in front of them and the story within the story. Romance readers and women's-fiction fans should snap up this charming love story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)