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Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite
For a debut novel, So Happy Together by Deborah K. Shepherd is a mesmerizing tale with memorable characters and a gripping plot, a tale with an immense appeal to fans of strong and multilayered female protagonists. Caro Tanner’s marriage lost its spark in 1987. The artist she once was has long since left her. Then she has a disturbing nightmare about Peter, the guy who, in 1967, she longed for each night, holding her breath as she watched him on stage with her rival, wanting him and ready for him to have her on the floorboards, curtain up or down. With the children now away at summer camp, Caro sets off on a road trip to look for Peter. Can she find him and reignite the spark she once felt and reconquer what she thinks she has lost: the fever of being aroused, the thrill of adventure? It is a journey that is not only physical, but one that will lead her to the truth of who and what she has become, and what she needs to be, regardless of the past. Sometimes reality can be so stubborn.
So Happy Together is told in a mesmerizing voice and the author’s use of the first-person narrative voice is ingenious as it allows readers to grasp the inner world of the protagonist and to easily understand her emotions. Readers are introduced to a woman who commits adultery in her heart and in her husband’s embrace and then sets out to do it in reality. The shifts in setting between the ’60s, when Peter and Caro were drama students in Tucson, Arizona, and the late ’80s is beautifully written. The author captures the culture of the ’60s with style, a world where sex and drugs were common and rock 'n’ roll set the cultural pulse. The contrast between the past and the present is strongly articulated and, as one reads, one wonders if the protagonist can reconcile the lust of her youth with the duty of marriage. Themes of love, sex, family, passion, adventure, and marriage are deftly accomplished in this cunningly plotted and affecting story. Deborah K. Shepherd has crafted a breezy tale in which one woman sets out to address the regret that plagues her and it contains an engaging internal conflict that most people face at some point or another.
