In December of 1969, Mike Holder met Candice “Candy” Lee Wilson at a church conference for college students in San Joaquin Valley. Their connection was instant, and after a few months of courtship, they got engaged to be married eight months later.
The early years of their marriage were filled with love and bliss. Despite struggling financially during those moments, they remained steadfastly committed to each other and overcame all the challenges together. However, Mike’s ambitious career path as an educator soon began to cause strain and emotional distance in their relationship. The demanding nature of his career—with long work hours, extensive responsibilities, constant upheaval, and instability from frequent job changes and relocations—took precedence over their marriage, leading to neglect and a lack of consideration for Candy’s needs.
Attempting to reconnect and make it up to Candy, Mike embarked on a research project to surprise her with a detailed history of her birth parents. However, what he uncovered proved to be far more heart-wrenching than he had anticipated. Instead of bringing closure, his research project unearthed deep-seated traumas for Candice, forcing her to relive a past that she wasn’t ready to face and causing her severe mental issues.
This puts more strain on their already dwindling marriage, and leaves the couple fighting to salvage what remains of their once-vibrant relationship. As Mike grapples with the weight of his unintended consequences, he must confront his own guilt in exacerbating Candy’s pain and help her heal from the scars of her past.
THE BLUE GIRL, CANDY LEE CAINE is more than your regular cliché romance story. Laden with depth and complexity, the book explores profound themes such as mental health, identity, marriage, love, commitment, ambitions, guilt, regret, and the enduring scars of childhood neglect and trauma.
Author Mickey J. Martin’s writing style, reminiscent of a memoir or diary, serves as a compelling conduit that draws readers into the intricate world of Mike Holder. Through Martin’s deft storytelling, readers are afforded the opportunity to intimately experience the highs and lows of Mike’s marriage firsthand. Throughout the novel, Mike’s introspective reflections on his career choices and their profound ramifications on both his personal and professional life are laid bare. With every monologue and question, Mike’s palpable guilt reverberates through the pages—allowing readers to sympathize with him: “Why, I asked myself, had I allowed the pursuit of my professional activities to dominate my decision making so completely that matters at home had become secondary? Life isn’t meant to be lived that way, I realized, and it definitely wasn’t what I wanted for us, so how and why had I allowed ours to get that way?”
The most beautiful part of the novel is the undeniable love Mike has for Candy. Even despite his selfish decisions and personal issues, his love for Candy always shines through. It’s sweet and endearing to watch as he persistently tries to mend the fractures in their relationship. After learning about her traumatic past, he wholeheartedly shares in her pain and sadness and stands by her when she needs him the most. To him, she is everything and more, and he is forever grateful she chose to be with him: “a rose is a rose wherever you find one, and I knew all along that I had found one in her.”
Aside from the occasional filler of unnecessary historical information and light repetition, THE BLUE GIRL, CANDY LEE CAINE flows very well with no grammatical errors or inconsistencies to distract readers from the story. At the end of it all, the book delivers a placating ending that will warm its readers’ hearts.
Mickey J. “Mike” Martin’s THE BLUE GIRL, CANDY LEE CAINE is a poignant yet heartbreaking romance story that explores mental health, trauma, identity, abuse, and other heavy topics.
~Tomi Alo for IndieReader