In Savannah Gardiner’s COULD’VE BEEN, Olivia (“Liv”), a woman in her 30s, returns to her hometown years after making a dramatic exit and a promise never to return. She runs into Jake, a former flame and the primary reason for her post-high school departure. During their awkward conversation, Jake takes her hand, and she is set loose into a world of memories of their lives together—memories of things that never happened. This imaginative device introduces the novel’s storyline exploring the what-ifs of the book’s title. Liv, recently widowed and with an 8-year-old son, has returned out of necessity rather than desire. The remainder of the storyline involves her exploration of unfinished business, both with Jake and her own unfaced demons.
Gardiner has created interesting characters, particularly Liv’s son Noah, who is curious, sweet, and open about both his pain and his love for his mother. Their relationship is one of the book’s more appealing characteristics. A scene depicting the provenance of Jake’s beat-up Jeep—the same vehicle he proudly rehabbed back in high school—and an interesting scene describing the ins and outs of an HGTV home-repair filming session also entertain. There are other immersive elements as well, including one powerful scene involving a sexual assault, which occurs in an unexpected setting. Gardiner also drops another clever twist near the book’s end.
Unfortunately, the stakes, story, and writing are limited. Liv’s career was as a political consultant, and yet nothing in this character’s nature, apparent interests, or conversation suggests such a background. At one point, Liv notes that “[d]rama lingers in the group of people who grew up together but never fully put adolescence behind them.” The same could be said of the book’s plot, which primarily revolves around 30-somethings engaged in teenage-level romance gossip.
Other drawbacks are unimaginative and repetitive phrases like “It takes every ounce of my energy to…” and the use of underlines to emphasize words. The writing and book are poorly edited. Missing and inadvertently added words pepper the text: “With his back is to the entrance, there’s no chance he saw me enter” and “We stop at the bike rack, where I give him as much of a hug and a kiss.” There are frequent line breaks in the middle of sentences, giving the book a slap-dash production quality. Finally, the brief explanation behind the plot device that sets off the book’s entire arc of action is implausible.
Still, readers (particularly romance fans) who are willing to overlook these drawbacks will enjoy the story’s clever and universally relatable “if only” questions about chosen paths in life—both those we take and those we reject.
Although flawed, COULD’VE BEEN by Savannah Gardiner offers a clever premise, surprise twists, and scenes both sweet and terrifying.
~Anne Welsbacher for IndieReader