Everything We Ever Wanted
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Product Description
Review
‘Wonderfully complex and human and very, very difficult to put down’
Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Love in the Present Tense
‘A touching story…Shepard’s writing brings her sweet, troubled characters alive’
Heat
‘This beautifully written story is complex, emotional and totally absorbing’
Closer
Product Description
How do you choose between your family and your history? Emotional and compelling storytelling from Sara Shepard, author of All the Things We Didn’t Say.
A late-night phone call on a Sunday evening rarely brings good news. So when Sylvie, a recently-widowed mother of two, receives a call from the head teacher of the school she's on the board of, she knows it won't be something she wants to hear. The school was founded by her grandfather, and she's inherited everything he strived to build up - a reputation, a heritage, the school and the grand old family house. And with this inheritance comes responsibility.
So when her son Scott is whispered to be involved in a scandal that led to the death of one of the boys he coaches at the school, it throws the family into chaos: Sylvie has to decide between her loyalty to the school that has been part of her family legacy for years and her son who she feels wants nothing to do with her. She starts spying on the dead boy's father, making an unlikely connection.
Sara Shepard's compelling new novel tells how hard it can be to really, truly connect to people, how making quick, easy judgments can come back to haunt you, and how the life you always planned for - and always dreamed of - often doesn't always turn out the way you imagined at all…
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Now, before I begin, I have a confession to make. It's a confession that may shock some of you. I have to admit that before reading Everything We Ever Wanted I had never read a Sara Shepard novel. Before you all start throwing things at me, I promise that I will be reading her others novels, especially her Pretty Little Liars series. So, therefore as soon as I had the opportunity to review Everything We Ever Wanted I jumped at the chance. After all I just had to see for myself the reasons why everyone is so in love with her novels.
The first half of Everything We Ever Wanted was very slow moving in terms of plot, as not a lot seems to happen. This part of the book seems to focus more on the characters themselves than what is happening within the story. I found this meant it was a little difficult to get into the novel to begin with. In the second part of the novel the pace does move a little quicker with changes happening within each of the characters lives. While the pace is relatively slow, I did find the writing to be beautiful. The descriptions really brought the story to life and the writing really made me want to read more
The characters within Everything We Ever Wanted experience a wide range of emotions that as a reader I was swept along with and able to feel with each character. Sylvie, Joanna, Charles and Scott are each going through inner turmoil for different reasons, and this added real depth to each character. While I did want to find out what happened to each characters life I did think that it was very difficult to relate to and actually like any of the characters. Sylvie in particular seemed a little cold and self centered at times, which lead me to dislike her until late on in the novel. I did enjoy the way Sara Shepard is able to dig into the depths of each character and really get into how everyone deals with their roles as, mother, wife, son etc.
Overall I did enjoy Everything We Ever Wanted finding the book to be brutally honest, emotional and beautifully written. While the novel is more of a look at the characters themselves than having much of a plot it was still very entertaining. I would recommend you try this novel if you enjoy Sara Shepard's previous novels. I still cannot wait to try Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series
Georgina
Chick Litaholic
The first half of Everything We Ever Wanted was very slow moving in terms of plot, as not a lot seems to happen. This part of the book seems to focus more on the characters themselves than what is happening within the story. I found this meant it was a little difficult to get into the novel to begin with. In the second part of the novel the pace does move a little quicker with changes happening within each of the characters lives. While the pace is relatively slow, I did find the writing to be beautiful. The descriptions really brought the story to life and the writing really made me want to read more
The characters within Everything We Ever Wanted experience a wide range of emotions that as a reader I was swept along with and able to feel with each character. Sylvie, Joanna, Charles and Scott are each going through inner turmoil for different reasons, and this added real depth to each character. While I did want to find out what happened to each characters life I did think that it was very difficult to relate to and actually like any of the characters. Sylvie in particular seemed a little cold and self centered at times, which lead me to dislike her until late on in the novel. I did enjoy the way Sara Shepard is able to dig into the depths of each character and really get into how everyone deals with their roles as, mother, wife, son etc.
Overall I did enjoy Everything We Ever Wanted finding the book to be brutally honest, emotional and beautifully written. While the novel is more of a look at the characters themselves than having much of a plot it was still very entertaining. I would recommend you try this novel if you enjoy Sara Shepard's previous novels. I still cannot wait to try Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series
Georgina
Chick Litaholic
Format:Paperback
Everything We Ever Wanted took me a while to get into as none of the characters are particularly likeable. They all come across as being selfish and overly concerned with appeareances and I wasn't convinced I was going to enjoy the books at all. I ploughed on and things slowly became clear, yes the characters are deeply flawed but they are very normal. The book is very characcter driven, each person has their own view of the world and their own beliefs about how they are seen by others. What Everything We Ever Wanted serves to do is show how without talking to over people are perceptions become screwed, we see things withour own particular slant on things. People don't necessarily do things for the reasons we believe they do and our actions can be misconstrued by others if they are not explained. The nature of what Sara Shepard has set out to do with this novel means that each of the charactrers is, by necessity, very complex and thier relationships with others are equally so.
There is a wonderful analogy half way through Everything We Ever Wanted; when a fair comes to town you dream of how wonderful it's going to be and you get so excited about all the rides you're going to go on. The fair turns up and when you get there it's already full of other kids, there's not as many rides as you'd hoped for and it's such a let down that you spend the rest of the time somewhere else. This is life to Sylvie and if people were being honest most of them could see elements of this in their own lives. The life we live as adults is never the life we deamt of as a child, sometimes this may be a good thing, sometimes we'll spend the rest of our lives resenting things didn't turn out as planned.
"I don't have many friends," Sylvie said, her head down. "I...I know a lot of people. But there aren't many people I can really talk to. I find it hard to connect. I've always envied people who find it easy."
This to me is one of the greatest paragraphs in the book and my heart goes out to Sylvie when she says it, I'm sure a lot of people have been in the situation where they feel they're surrounded by people but are still lonely and I think that voicing this would have taken great courage. These few sentences and the paragraphs around it show her realising where she has gone wrong and trying to do something about it, for me this was a turning point in how I viewed Sylvie as a character.
Sara Shepard is a wonderfully talented writer, as I said at the start of Everything We Ever Wanted I didn't like any of the characters and was tempted to put it to one side. By the middle of the book I was starting to understand them more, the further I progressed through the novel the more connected to the characters I felt and the more I could emphasise with their situations and understand how some people end up getting themselves into situations simply through making assumptions not talking enough to those around them.
There is a wonderful analogy half way through Everything We Ever Wanted; when a fair comes to town you dream of how wonderful it's going to be and you get so excited about all the rides you're going to go on. The fair turns up and when you get there it's already full of other kids, there's not as many rides as you'd hoped for and it's such a let down that you spend the rest of the time somewhere else. This is life to Sylvie and if people were being honest most of them could see elements of this in their own lives. The life we live as adults is never the life we deamt of as a child, sometimes this may be a good thing, sometimes we'll spend the rest of our lives resenting things didn't turn out as planned.
"I don't have many friends," Sylvie said, her head down. "I...I know a lot of people. But there aren't many people I can really talk to. I find it hard to connect. I've always envied people who find it easy."
This to me is one of the greatest paragraphs in the book and my heart goes out to Sylvie when she says it, I'm sure a lot of people have been in the situation where they feel they're surrounded by people but are still lonely and I think that voicing this would have taken great courage. These few sentences and the paragraphs around it show her realising where she has gone wrong and trying to do something about it, for me this was a turning point in how I viewed Sylvie as a character.
Sara Shepard is a wonderfully talented writer, as I said at the start of Everything We Ever Wanted I didn't like any of the characters and was tempted to put it to one side. By the middle of the book I was starting to understand them more, the further I progressed through the novel the more connected to the characters I felt and the more I could emphasise with their situations and understand how some people end up getting themselves into situations simply through making assumptions not talking enough to those around them.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed this book very much. I felt the writer was very skilled at drawing the reader into the complex relationships and motivations of the characters therein. I am not going to go into plot lines as I consider this unnecessary when reviewing as I dont want to give too much away... and I dont like to see that in other peoples reviews either! What I will say is that this is worth reading and is written in a nice style that really gets you involved in the feelings of the characters. It is fair to say that most of the characters are pretty unlikable due to to their selfish motivations and actions, largely being based on the incorrect assumptions about why the other characters behave or say what they do. Beautifully illustates how people day to day, misjudge and second guess other people, without having much bearing on reality but rather more on how they, themselves view the situation. This writer has human nature spot on if you ask me (well some of the worst aspects of it at least). That is not to say that the chracters do not have SOME redeeming features, as despite everything Ive said, the family loyalties and love does shine through, allbeit sometimes with a rather dull light! There are no mushy happy ever afters here, rather a more open, ongoing one that suits this book perfectly. In short Id say certainly worth a read and I plan to be reading the authors other adult book at some point in the future so I guess that speaks for itself!
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