Suburban Renewal

Rating:
Summary: One of the most beautiful books I've ever read!
Review: This book was a breath of fresh air among all the romance novels I read. Don't get me wrong I love romance for many reasons and I will pick romance from any other genre any day of the week. Not because I can't understand other genres, but simply becuase romance is "my cup of tea". However among the genre of romance there's a lot of formulas that we can see over and over again adn I'm a bit tired of it. So when I picked Suburban Renewal and started reading ch 1 in the store I knew I had to have the book and that I would like it. I was wrong. I did not liked the book. I LOVED the book. This is Morsi at her best.
Suburban Renewal is the story of Corrie and Sam. Corrie is the popular girl, who is valedictorian, come from the right side of the tracks and tries to please her parents. She has ambition and drive. She has a plan.
Sam is the 2 year older guy from the wrong side of the track. Bad family history except for his grandma who has raised him sincee he was a little guy. He's not particularly smart, not particularly ambitious, and even though he plays high school football he is not particularly good enough to make it to college ball.
He has watched her from afar and has always known that she is out of his league. However that does not stop him from asking her to the homecoming dance. She accepts and that is that for them. They soon fall in love. But things happen and they are separeted for 2 years. Then Corrie goes away to college and breaks up with Sam upon her mother's request. However one thing Sam and Corrie did not plan. Despite being careful, Corrie ends up pregnant and Sam sees this as the perfect opportunity to have Corrie to himself forever. So he grabs his chance and runs with it.
Sam works very hard to provide for Corrie and their soon to be in this world baby. He takes every job he can and saves as much as possible. And that's how their years together beging. The book is written in 1st person and by year. So you'll see the point of view of Sam in year 1985 and on Corrie's too.
You get to see how their marriage evolves. The hardships of marrying so young and uneducated. The unwise and wise decisions they make. We see their family grow and how parenthood takes a toll on the relationship. We see Sam's father play a huge role in the lives of everyone and we see Corrie questioning her marriage to Sam more often than he does.
What one character of the book said of Sam was completetly true, he was the nurturer. He was a great provider, husband and father. He never tried to diminish Corrie's needs with his own or for his own personal benefit. I empathized a whole lot more with Sam than with COrrie. She was a very good character, but I would have done many things differently and handle them differently as well.
The book is full of modern history, charm, great writing, outstanding character development and an absolutly fabulously real story of life, love and marriage. It is a close up picture of what a good marriage is. With the good the bad and the evil.
In short the book was near perfect!
2 thumbs up way up!