Well written. Chris got what he deserved. ( )

Next Year, For Sure/Zoey Leigh Peterson In this moving and enormously entertaining debut novel, longtime romantic partners Kathryn and Chris experiment with an open relationship and reconsider everything they thought they knew about love.
After nine years together, Kathryn and Chris have the sort of relationship most would envy. They speak in the shorthand they have invented, complete one another’s sentences, and help each other through every daily and existential dilemma. When Chris tells Kathryn about his feelings for Emily, a vivacious young woman he sees often at the Laundromat, Kathryn encourages her boyfriend to pursue this other woman—certain that her bond with Chris is strong enough to weather a little side dalliance.
As Kathryn and Chris stumble into polyamory, Next Year, For Sure tracks the tumultuous, revelatory, and often very funny year that follows. When Chris’s romance with Emily grows beyond what anyone anticipated, both Chris and Kathryn are invited into Emily’s communal home, where Kathryn will discover new romantic possibilities of her own. In the confusions, passions, and upheavals of their new lives, both Kathryn and Chris will be forced to reconsider their past and what they thought they knew about love.
Offering a luminous portrait of a relationship from two perspectives, Zoey L. Paterson has written an empathic, beautiful, and tremendously honest novel about a great love pushed to the edge. Deeply poignant and hugely entertaining, Next Year, For Sure shows us what lies at the mysterious heart of relationships, and what true openness and transformation require.
 
This was a rather intriguing story with an ending I very much enjoyed.
 
The writing was challenging. It had little punctuation, with no quotation marks offsetting speech ever. While I think this can be an incredibly effective technique, it distracted from the actual premise of the book. Instead of adding meaning to the story, it made it feel as though the author were trying to be overly literary.
 
Emily as a character felt too perfect. I wanted her to screw up, to do something wrong, but she instead continually did what one would expect her to be doing as the perfect version of her character type would.
 
Kathryn felt a tad uninvited, and I was sad for her, too. She had lost friends because of a previous relationship and it took this book to see her really socialise again and even then she lost one of the few people who she had been close to prior. Reading about her felt a little bit depressing.
 
I really appreciated the honesty in Kathryn and Chris's relationship. It was refreshing to see characters talk about their crushes on other people and to understand that love isn't always linear. I was almost disappointed by the ending though I think it was well deserved.
 
If the concept really intrigues you, read this book, but despite enjoying the plot I found the actual telling to be dry.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I loved it!

Kathryn and Chris have been together for nine years. They seem like the perfect couple; but keep reading. It seems Chris has a habit of falling in love with friends of his girlfriends. But that's in the past. He and Kathryn are a team, right? Chris gets a crush on Emily and tells Kathryn about it. As Chris can't seem to stop thinking of Emily, Kathryn encourages him to ask her out on a date. She thinks they can have that kind of open relationship. But can they?

The book explores relationships from both Kathryn's and Chris's perspectives. Is Kathryn really okay with Chris seeing Emily? Is that what Chris wants? Why would Kathryn even suggest such a thing? Is she maybe not as happy with Chris as she seems?

It's a wonderful story, well written with very deep characters. It tugged on my emotions with every twist and turn. ( )

Finally, a worthy successor to Laurie Colwin's amazing "Happy All The Time"! The story begins with Chris and Kathryn seemingly content in a nine year relationship. Chris has a history of falling for and becoming involved with the friends and roommates of his girlfriends, and this penchant suddenly reactivates when he meets and develops a crush on Emily. Kathryn half-encourages and half flips out, and of course, she herself also finds Emily delightful.

Emily lives in a commune called Ahimsa, with a few other equally agreeable women and men. Emily and Chris act on their attraction, as does Kathryn on hers to Moss, a commune member. The saga of the elaborate dance is told from the perspectives of both Kathryn and Chris, and as the attractions play out, Chris complains to Kathryn that he wants "the opposite of dating." Kathryn reminds him: "You had that. And you wanted something else."

Thoughtful and a rare gentle look at possibilities. ( )

What I like best about Zoey Leigh Peterson’s Next Year, For Sure is the feather-light tone that she establishes at the outset and sustains throughout. It is slightly detached from the emotional turmoil of her novel’s principle participants. And this allows for a non-judgemental presentation of thoughts and events, and sometimes a nuanced view of the possibilities of love.

Nuance might be required. Chris, who has been in a relationship with Kathryn for nine years, is infatuated with Emily. What should he do about that? He doesn’t want to be an “asshole”, again. Each of his previous long-term relationships ended when he fell in love with someone else; friends of his exes applied the label. Is there any way for him to bring Emily in to his life without jeopardizing his stated enduring commitment to Kathryn? And what of Kathryn? If Chris has wandering eyes and heart, can she honestly say that their relationship is as solid as she thought it was? And if it isn’t, might that explain why she has become numb to happiness and joyful abandon? Maybe she should be looking elsewhere as well.

Chris and Kathryn and Emily come up with a novel solution, at least temporarily. But does it really absolve Chris? Readers will reach differing opinions, I think. I confess that I lost sympathy with Chris early on. But there is plenty more here to keep you interested and questioning and most of all the writing will enchant.

Recommended. ( )