It Happens All The Time: a novel by Amy Hatvany. New York: ATRIA books, 2017. 302 pages
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Amber Bryant and Tyler Hicks have been best friends since they were teenagers---understanding each other when no one else does. While Tyler is in love with Amber, her feelings for him are strictly platonic. When she returns home after graduating from college and getting engaged to her college boyfriend, Amber questions her decision to get married and reconnects with her best friend, Tyler. Exploring her feelings for Tyler, Amber after a night of drinking, kisses him. Told in the alternating voices of Tyler and Amber, what happens next affects both of them and their families forever.
Hatvany has a gift for presenting both sides of a difficult situation and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. Telling how the events leading to that night occurred from Tyler and Amber's point of view added an authenticity to the story that is difficult to ignore. I was sympathetic to each character while I was reading their side and then would flip to the other point of view with the next chapter. The ending left me dissatisfied and I keep thinking about what each person lost on that night. There are no easy answers or solutions for this horrific event that "happens all the time" and Hatvany has given it a voice of outrage. There are many points of discussion which will make this a good book club choice.
I received a copy for a review.
Amy Hatvany is the author of
Best Kept Secret, Outside the Lines, The Language of Sisters, Heart Like Mine, Safe with Me, and
Somewhere Out There. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her family.
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