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Raising three very young children is an all-encompassing task. Lanie has been doing fine with her little boys, with the support of family and friends, but a move to Boston for grad school for her husband makes everything harder. She’s losing sight of the things that make her her, and the final straw is when another mom at the park asks her when she’s due. And she’s not pregnant.
So Lanie starts to choose some ways to take care of herself. She joins a gym nearby and carves out evenings after her boys go to bed to exercise. Once that’s in place, she signs up for a photography class and finds a new hobby that engages her interest and capitalizes on her creative talents. Now to find a way to reconnect with her husband, the love of her life of 15 years.
Everyone Is Beautiful is an early novel from Katherine Center, and I found it didn’t have the same feel as her newer books. I’ve really enjoyed Center’s stories, for their charm, swoony romance, and simple likability. They’ve ranged a bit from being more grounded in the realities of life (a woman trying to find her way again after a divorce in Happiness for Beginners) to being just a lot of fun (The Bodyguard). I think Center was still finding her voice here. At the same time, many women will likely find this story hits home if they’re in this stage of life (or they’ll remember acutely that stage if they’re past it, like me). I like that it shows a woman who’s really struggling and who finds some ways to take care of herself within the parameters of affordability (this couple is on a tight budget with the wife not working and the husband in graduate school) and time constraints of raising little children. It provides hope. But it lacked the light touch of Center’s more recent novels, so I missed that.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 9 uses of strong language, around 40 instances of moderate profanity, 20 uses of mild language, and 5 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Some references to sex but not a lot of detail.
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