The Book:
How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, 2018
The Characters:
Margaret, her fiance Chip, her sister Kit, and her physical therapist Ian
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Margaret Jacobsen has a bright future ahead of her: a fiancé she adores, her dream job, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in one tumultuous moment.
In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Margaret must figure out how to move forward on her own terms while facing long-held family secrets, devastating heartbreak, and the idea that love might find her in the last place she would ever expect.
On Valentine’s day, planning to propose to Margaret, Chip took her up in an airplane. He was almost all the way through his pilot training, but not yet licensed. Bad weather rolled in while they were in the air, and Chip crashed the plane. He was unharmed, but Margaret injured her spinal cord and was badly burned.
Margaret begins her recovery. Her physical therapist, Ian, is mean in that you-know-they’ll-end-up-together way. Her estranged sister comes back into her life, and we find out that the sister was the product of their mother’s affair. Chip cheats on her and they break up. Margaret and Ian have many moments of intense chemistry, but he ultimately tells her that she only thinks she loves him because of the accident. Ian kisses her under the mistletoe at Kit’s goodbye party, is fired, loses his visa, and goes back to Scotland. On the day Margaret is discharged, her dad overhears them talking about her mom’s affair and leaves her.
The Ending:
A year after the accident, Margaret and her family go to Europe for Chip’s wedding. They are secretly on a mission to parent-trap her mom and dad back together. Kit gets morning sickness and is unable to go to the wedding, but Ian crashes it to win Margaret back. They end up together happily ever after, and her parents get back together too. The family opens a summer camp for people in wheelchairs.
The Review:
I saw a social media post the other day that said “Hey girl, a friendly reminder to apply for that job you’re not qualified for because neither are the white men that work there.” Loved to see that exact same sentiment from Margaret’s mentor in the first chapter!
Overall, How To Walk Away was adorable and heartwarming. KC writes beautifully and creates strong, inspiring characters. I did have a few questions I felt were unanswered or glossed over in the plot:
I do understand that KC wanted to focus on Margaret’s growth more than those topics, but feel like they could have been briefly addressed to tie up loose ends. Even though I could predict where the book was going from the beginning, the characters are ones you care about, so you want to get to the end.
I loved the “When you don’t know what to do for yourself, do something for somebody else” quote.
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