Amy Hatvany

Amy Hatvany is carving out a nice niche for herself in the Barbara Delinsky/Jodi Picoult Women's Fiction genre. Heart Like Mine is a well-written, thoughtful novel where there are no heroes or villains, just realistic characters dealing with incredibly difficult situations. Grace is madly in love with Victor and, although she never particularly wanted to be a mother, she is satisfied with seeing his two children on his alternating weekends. But when his ex-wife Kelli dies suddenly, Grace has show more to reassess their relationship, including an engagement so recent they haven't even told Victor's kids yet. What does Grace owe Victor and his kids, and is this still the relationship she wants?

Meanwhile, Victor's teenaged daughter Ava is grieving her mother's death while also feeling resentment towards her father and his girlfriend and anger towards her mother for leaving her behind. Already an outsider at school, she doesn't want to be known as "the girl whose mother died."

Both Grace and Victor fear that Kelli's death might have been a suicide, and chapters told from the dead woman's point of view provide insight into her troubled psyche. Kelli was an emotionally fragile woman who had never recovered from an adolescent trauma, but she desperately loved her children. Was she falling deeper into despair or was she about to turn the corner?

Despite the difficult subject matter, the story moves quickly as the reader wants to find out the mystery behind Kelli's death and see a positive resolution for the remaining characters. My one quibble is the unlikely premise that Grace, the director of a battered women's shelter, would drive a Lexus (a fact that bothers Ava, given Kelli's more modest lifestyle). But that's a small point in an otherwise engaging novel. show less

Cadence Martin had a rather nice life until her marriage fell apart. She felt not only the bitterness and betrayal of the divorce but the pressure to be the do-it-all single mom, needing to prove to her husband and her friends that she and their son would survive just fine without him. But Cadence, like many single moms, cannot do it all. Rather than ask for help, she copes with a glass of wine at the end of the day; then two. And, eventually, she's binge-drinking at home but keeping up such show more a believable front that no one suspects until her ex-husband finds her passed out and their son fending for himself. Cadence loses custody and beings a long, fraught struggle to sobriety. A realistic portrait of how easily a mother might slip into alcoholism and how frighteningly good women can be at hiding it. show less

SAFE WITH ME is one of those books that stirs up all kinds of emotions. Anger, heartbreak, empathy, and hope. It’s the kind of story that rattles you from the very beginning and makes you a part of the characters’ lives. I liked how the author handled some heavy subject matter with sensitivity and compassion.

The story is about two mothers, Hannah and Olivia, who are brought together by chance when Hannah’s daughter dies, and her organ donation allows Olivia’s teenage daughter Maddie show more to live. The donation was anonymous and confidential, but fate has different ideas, and the three women unknowingly become tangled in each other’s lives.

Hannah, Olivia, and Maddie were complex, realistic characters dealing with serious issues – Hannah, dealing with the death of her child; Olivia, suffering at the hands of an abusive husband; and Maddie, struggling with the guilt that someone had to die for her to live. My heart went out to each one. Listening to the audiobook helped me connect with the characters even more. Joy Osmanski, Rebekkah Ross, and Cassandra Campbell gave brilliant performances, capturing the essence of their character.

SAFE WITH ME is another winner from Amy Hatvany. Definitely sad at times with some nail biting moments along the way, but the ending left me feeling optimistic.

Source: Review copy from the publisher

Rating: 4.5 Stars show less

Trigger warning: Rape and eating disorder

I have been loving Amy Hatvany for a while. I was glad to see her newest offering that takes a hard look at rape between childhood best friends, Amber and Tyler. I think that she did a very good job showing both Amber and Tyler's POV and even showing how Amber wasn't the "perfect victim" and why it doesn't matter. Via other characters we get Amber being buoyed up with being told she was not at fault, it be nice in real life if most victims got this show more kind of support from family and friends.

"It Happens All the Time" begins in medias res. We have a character named Amber holding another character named Tyler at gunpoint. Tyler seems to know why Amber is holding a gun on him, but it takes us a bit to get there.

Amber is home from her senior year of college, hesitant about seeing her childhood friend Tyler. The last time they saw each other, they argued since she accused him of being jealous of her new relationship. Amber is happy though that Tyler has seemed to let things go, and when she pops up engaged, she starts to wonder if she is ready to get married or not.

Tyler has been in love with Amber almost as soon as he has known her. He's jealous of her new relationship and starts jumping for joy when Amber comes home for the summer and starts flirting with him. His ship comes in (so to speak) when he finally thinks he and Amber are going to be a couple after finally having sex. The problem is that Tyler thinks what happened was consensual, Amber in her POV does not. When Tyler realizes that Amber believes he raped her (oh he did btw) he goes through regret, anger and a lot of self justification.

Besides these two characters I have to applaud Hatvany having in some great secondary characters. I do have to say though, Tyler's father was one note and cartoonish in some aspects. But I have to say it was great having Tyler's parents in here doing the whole, of course my son did nothing wrong, and your daughter shouldn't have been drinking crap. How many times are rape victims attacked for daring to drink, wear short clothes, and shit just be out among a group of men.

I loved Tyler's partner who gave him crap as soon as he realized what Tyler did and gave him no quarter. Amber's parents were fantastic and very believable about being angry and not knowing what to do about their daughter who is spiraling in so many directions.

The writing I thought was top-notch. Hatvany does such a good job with both characters voices and always does another great job of including real life thoughts/comments that are made by victims and perpetrators as well. Amber blames herself for drinking, flirting, and kissing Tyler. Tyler doesn't see himself as a rapist, he chalks this up to Amber being like those girls/women who drink too much and then want to blame alcohol and the guy for their choices. FYI, Tyler made me wish he come alive so I could knee him repeatedly. I think this book is a good discussion topic for a book club or other groups who want to discuss consent in this day and age since we still have people (men and women) not getting it.

I do have to bring up the fact that there is also discussions of Amber having a former eating disorder that rears its ugly head again after she is raped. And you can see that Amber still has an obsession (somewhat) of what she eats and how often she exercises.

The setting of this book takes place in Washington state. Sadly, you don't get to read much about the location during this book besides Amber looking to relocate to Seattle and one day become a sports medicine doctor for the Seahawks.

I don't think I can say this book had a happy ending per se, but you can see that Amber is going to do what it takes to become stronger without relying on a man again to make her feel that way. show less