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Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite
Gap Year by Lindsey Goldstein introduces forty-six-year-old CPA Jane Greenberg, whose life is disrupted when her daughter Liza leaves for a gap year in Spain. Just then, her husband, Clark, confesses that he is having an affair. Distraught, Jane decides to leave everything behind, including her job, and travels to Ecuador to fulfill her decades-old dream of climbing Cotopaxi. She stays at the Quito youth hostel, where she becomes friends with a fellow hiker called Laura. Mark becomes her guide, a man with a lot of charisma and romantic promise. Jane fails to reach the summit because of her violent altitude sickness, and things get worse when she finds out that Mark is actually married, a betrayal that compels her to finalize her divorce. When she relocates to the Galápagos, will she find work and love this time?
Lindsey Goldstein's captivating story enticed me with the intimately delivered first-person narrative voice. The author pulled me into Jane's psyche and mindscape. Her inner world is vividly drawn, and her inner monologues fuel the psychological conflict in the story. The crisis point was compelling and a strong enough premise for this enthralling story, which the author uses to create an adventure of midlife reinvention. Gap Year features intriguing characters, and besides Jane’s hunger for adventure, I was delighted to follow Mark, whose deceptive allure conceals his secrets, and Laura, who becomes Jane's confidante. The adventure includes an oxygen-deprived descent from the volcano, a devastating airport revelation, and swimming alongside the Galápagos penguins. This is a breezy read, punctuated by breathtaking adventures and emotionally rich moments.
