... unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date - possibly the best in living history - Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.
Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life - and even a love - worth remembering.
Samantha found a kitten and took it to the vet to get checked out. The vet turns out to be a grumpy Xavier who advised euthanasia because its bumhole hadn't properly formed and it would eventually die if expensive surgery wasn't done. Samantha stormed out and raised enough money to save the kitten. She took the kitten back to Xavier for another check-up and he asked her out. They have a wonderful time that night and then she informed him that she was moving back home for good to California the next day. Her mother had dementia and the family was banding together to take care of her at home.
I thought this story was okay. Samantha and Xavier were cute together ... her humour countered his seriousness. But things escalated quickly from there. I know she just met the guy but it wasn't until he was dropping her off at home after their date that he discovered she was moving from Minnesota to California in a couple of hours ... how could it not have come up in the conversation especially since she'd brought the kitten in to get a travel note?
They acknowledged they had a great time but it couldn't go anywhere. Despite now being thousands of miles apart, Samantha and Xavier can’t stop thinking about each other. The next thing you know, Xavier is travelling to California a couple weeks later and it's like they'd been together forever. They are planning a life together but couldn't figure out how it was going to happen.
Samantha's mother had dementia and the family had promised her she would live at home and never be put in a facility. So Samantha, her father, her maternal grandmother, her brother, her sister and her sister's two young sons all lived at the grandmother's house and took turns taking care of the mother. The mother became violent at times, didn't know who they were, wandered off, wouldn't take her medications, etc. I've never known anyone with dementia but shouldn't she have been a facility where trained people could take of her properly? It emotionally and physically beat them down but they were determined not to break the promise of keeping her at home. Really?!
Neither Xavier nor Samantha had much money ... Xavier was still paying off his loans for his practice and Samantha was contributing to the household finances. Samantha then put her extra money along with the others into renovating their grandmother's house ... shouldn't the priority of the extra cash have gone towards getting the mother proper care instead of sprucing up the house? Xavier started working crazy hours at various clinics to make enough to fly back and forth to see Samantha in California and was burning himself out.
It's written in first person perspective alternating in Samantha and Xavier's voices (the chapters are labeled). There were references to characters in another author's stories I hadn't read so I didn't get them (I looked them up later ... it was weird the author would assume we all knew). As if the long distance relationship and the mother's dementia wasn't enough, there was more not so happy things that happened. I knew everything would be resolved at the end but I wasn't buying how it all came together. As a head's up, there is swearing and some adult activity.
The cat rescue I volunteer with had a kitten a couple years ago that was born without a bumhole and the surgery was expensive. Happily the cat is doing well now.
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