Title: Twenty-one Truths About Love

Author: Matthew Dicks

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press 2019

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 341

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

Daniel Mayrock's life is at a crossroads. He knows the following to be true:

1. He loves his wife Jill... more than anything.
2. He only regrets quitting his job and opening a bookshop a little (maybe more than a little)
3. Jill is ready to have a baby.
4. The bookshop isn’t doing well. Financial crisis is imminent. Dan doesn't know how to fix it.
5. Dan hasn’t told Jill about their financial trouble.
6. Then Jill gets pregnant.

This heartfelt story is about the lengths one man will go to and the risks he will take to save his family. But Dan doesn’t just want to save his failing bookstore and his family’s finances:

1. Dan wants to do something special.
2. He’s a man who is tired of feeling ordinary.
3. He’s sick of feeling like a failure.
4. He doesn't want to live in the shadow of his wife’s deceased first husband.

Dan is also an obsessive list maker; his story unfolds entirely in his lists, which are brimming with Dan’s hilarious sense of humor, unique world-view, and deeply personal thoughts. When read in full, his lists paint a picture of a man struggling to be a man, a man who has reached a point where he’s willing to do anything for the love (and soon-to-be new love) of his life.

I loved the idea of this book, told completely in lists. Unfortunately, it just didn’t land for me. I couldn’t stand the main character and saw absolutely no growth throughout the book. I felt so much sympathy for his wife. He kept so many secrets that there was no way that I could have liked him at all. Definitely not a book for me.

Next up on the TBR pile: