I’d Give Anything by Marisa de los Santos-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 12, 2020

Ginny Beale is eighteen, irreverent, funny, and brave, with a brother she adores and a circle of friends for whom she would do anything. Because of one terrible night, she loses them all—and her adventurous spirit—seemingly forever. While the town cheers on the high school football team, someone sets the school’s auditorium ablaze. Ginny’s best friend Gray Marsden’s father, a fire fighter, dies in the blaze.

While many in the town believe Daniel York, a notoriously troubled local teen, set the fire, Ginny makes a shattering discovery that casts blame on the person she trusts most in the world. Ginny tells no one, but the secret isolates her, looming between her and her friends and ruining their friendship.

Over the next two decades, Ginny puts aside her wanderlust and her dreams. Moving back to her hometown, she distances herself from the past and from nearly everyone in it. She marries a quiet man, raises their daughter, Avery, and cares for her tyrannical, ailing mother, Adela. But when Ginny’s husband, Harris, becomes embroiled in a scandal, Ginny’s carefully controlled life crumbles, and, just when she believes she is regaining her bearings, the secret she’s kept for twenty years emerges and threatens to destroy her hopes for the future.

With the help of fifteen-year-old Avery and of friends both old and new, Ginny must summon the courage to confront old lies and hard truths and to free herself and the people she loves from the mistakes and regrets that have burdened them for so long.

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REVIEW: I’d Give Anything starts off with an entry from Ginny Beale’s journal from 1997 about her and her best friends, Kirsten, CJ and Gray: the forever four. The passage shows how the group of kids were living their lives and how close they were. She and Gray were a couple and things were easy for them all. Or, as easy as things could be for kids in high school, until Gray makes a surprise admission which changes his life forever and directly impact’s Ginny’s.

However, one night, after a football game, a fire was set in the school’s auditorium and Gray’s father was killed in the blaze. Once Ginny makes it home, she overhears a conversation between her brother and her hard-lined mother that changes everything for Ginny.

Twenty years later, Ginny is at the grocery store where she encounters one of her husband’s co-workers and discovers that her husband has been fired due to some kind of scandal. Ginny is not convinced at first. But, when she confronts her husband about the supposed scandal, her world crumbles once again. She visits her mother, Adela, who is a fixer of sorts and also has cancer. She’s high-profile and even though Ginny doesn’t always agree with the things Adela has done, she knows that she has to talk to someone. When Adela starts strategizing out loud, Ginny puts a stop to it. Even though Ginny worries about her daughter Avery having to deal with the scandal, Adela’s plan does not set well with her.

Ginny is still best friends with Kirsten and eventually tells her what’s going on. As Ginny navigates her new reality, Kirsten asks her to host an engagement party for her and her fiancé. The only drawback is that she wants CJ and Gray there as well, whom Ginny hasn’t talked to in almost twenty years. Kirsten also wants Ginny’s brother there. Even though the two of them have been somewhat estranged for years, Ginny gives in as she will do anything for Kirsten and the party planning begins.

In the meantime, Ginny has made a couple of new friends at the dog park and has become close to Daniel. The two of them finally admit their attraction to each other and Ginny invites him to the party. He politely declines, but does offer to come over afterwards to help clean up.

They have the party and even though Ginny is a little uncomfortable, she does enjoy herself just like everyone else. When the party ends, Daniel and Ginny are cleaning up. Someone knocks on the door and Ginny sees it’s her brother. She lets him in and when Daniel enters the same room, her brother is not happy and Daniel leaves. When she and her brother talk, she finds out that everything she thought was true was the farthest thing from the truth. And, once she delves into what DID happen, to say their worlds are rocked would be an understatement.

I’d Give Anything is a brilliantly written book, although I have to be honest. I had a hard time with the first few chapters and thought about stopping. I’m so glad I didn’t. Once you get used to the journal passages from the past and then reading the story unfolding in the present, it all comes together so well. The characters are well written and the world building is phenomenal. The story pulls you in and doesn’t let go. I’d Give Anything is ultimately a story of facing one’s past in order to face your future. There are twists that bring old friends back together and tear others apart. It’s a very emotional read and I couldn’t read it fast enough. This is the first I’ve read by this author, but it will not be the last. Well done, Marisa de los Santos! Very, very well done!!

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Vickie K

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Marisa de los Santos is the New York Times bestselling author of LOVE WALKED IN, BELONG TO ME, FALLING TOGETHER, THE PRECIOUS ONE, and her newest novel, which continues with characters from the first two, I’LL BE YOUR BLUE SKY.

Marisa has also co-authored, with her husband David Teague, two novels for middle grade readers: SAVING LUCAS BIGGS and CONNECT THE STARS.

Marisa and David live in Wilmington, Delaware with their two children, Charles and Annabel, and their Yorkies, Finny and Huxley. Marisa is currently at work on her sixth novel for adults, I’D GIVE ANYTHING.