‘Love May Fail’ is an unusual book. The title suggests a book about taking a chance, having the courage to take a risk and hoping that it all works out. The main characters are all, in some way, flawed but their lives intertwine and allow us to catch glimpses of the way we can influence those we come into contact with.
There are a number of stories within this novel, some of which are more interesting than others.
The main character is Portia Kane, a rather irritating woman with a good heart who tends to let life pass her by. She has, for years, lived with the fact that her mother is a hoarder and social recluse. Portia finds her husband cheating on her at the start of the novel, so she takes off on some crazy mission to save the one man who inspired her-Mr Vernon, her high school teacher. Things don’t go quite to plan, but Portia does find a new relationship and becomes a writer (albeit one whose novel bombs).
Mr Vernon is a broken man when we meet him. He’s lost that spark his students recall with fondness-but I think that’s inevitable if you’re attacked by a student! He is quite pretentious in many ways, but as we learn more about him he feels a more genuine character.
This is a novel of coincidences. It felt quite manipulative, and I really didn’t feel emotionally connected enough to the characters to be drawn into their worlds. Perhaps the most genuine characters were Portia’s old friend, Danielle, and her brother, Chuck. Unfortunately, even these characters were toyed with in such a way that I lost interest in them.
I can’t help but feel this is one of those novels that on a different day, or under a different set of circumstances, I might have felt a lot more positively about. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC though.
