This was a very sad book. Reliving s life from the end of a life is hard - but this one is told with love of Central Park, art and imperfect people. It was an easy read and enters your thoughts days after reading. Definitely glad I read it.

The story of a marriage over the years as the wife is faced with a terminal illness. I really disliked the writing style of this book. The only thing I liked about the book was that it is also a love story of Central Park.

This is a mixed review for me. It took me awhile to get into the rhythm of the writing, in the beginning it was a stream of consciousness and I kept thinking I was missing something important. The parts that were straight up narrative were interesting, but I felt like Alice got too much play in a 40+ year marriage. Max and Jane's story was heartbreaking to read, I wish there was more time spent on Max's story. Once you got used to the writing style used in the reminiscent chapters they became much more poignant and beautiful. Made you think about what you remember about your own life. Rounded up to 4 stars because of the writing and the emotions and thoughts that this novel evoked and continue to evoke long after you are done reading.

Concept is good. Married couple. Wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Couple sentimentally recall the memories they have shared over the coarse of their marriage at one of their favorite places, Central Park.
The style of writing is horrible. A bunch of short thoughts bundled together made this entire book feel like a big run-on sentence. I would finish a page and think, what did I just read? Just a mess of a book.

"The Park is a beating heart, an adagio, a dreamy parenthesis."

Jessica Soffer is such a delightful writer. Her prose reads like poetry, like symphony. And this book isn't so much a love story as a love letter to Central Park.

"The Park is their home away, homing device, pen pal, fifth season."

And somehow, it's told in second person. Told well. Of course, obligatory first person as well. But who needs that?

"Evrry word must count."

I don't know what I was expecting, but this surpasses everything. I don't know who is going to read this book, but they should.

"But it's habit, the expectation of your response. Like catching an apple that you've batted my way. The satisfaction of that. The sacred code."

Love and loss and life. And The Park.

"And yet, just when it feels like the whole world has gone insane, loveless, lovelorn - and it is just getting worse - the cherry blossoms bloom in the Park. Does it feel better in here? It does. Does it cure anything? It does not. Still, see how the sun flickers on the water. It's angelic, isn't it? As in, angels do exist."

This one is getting so much love/ hype, but unfortunately I don’t see what the hype is about. I found it to be very slow, and if I’m being honest a tad bit confusing. This one was r for me.

What a beautiful story. This was marketed as being the story of a long marriage, but I was expecting elderly protagonists. They were younger than my parents, and so complicated and imperfect. Neither was particularly likeable, though I felt compassion for both. This is a very real and complicated novel about love—and art—but most of all, it is a beautiful love letter to New York City.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing me with the DRC.

It's been a couple of days since I finished "This Is A Love Story". It is one of those books that stays with you long after you've read the last page. It is also not a book for everyone, It is very easy to see why some have given it 3 , 2, even 1 star reviews. When I started reading I was going between thinking it would be a DNF, to if I did finish maybe a 2 or 3 star read. I am so glad I persevered and gave it more of a chance. It took a bit to click with the characters as well as Soffer's the writing style.

Initially I was turned off with Soffer's writing style. The book started with a long run-on stream of consciousness chapter about Central Park. After quite a bit of interesting information about the Park, Soffer moved into Abe's voice. We follow along as he is reminiscing with his wife, Jane, about their early days. It becomes clear Jane is ill, and Abe is talking & talking to keep her as present as he can. Throughout the book we hear the voices of Jane, their son Max, and Alice, a student of Abe's. Each section is interspersed with more information about Central Park.

You are invited into the inner most thoughts and memories of each voice, it's intimate, and at times voyeuristic. Soffer excels at portraying an honest look at relationships, be it marriage through the years, parenthood, and young adulthood.

My advice- if you are reading this review and struggling with the book, give it more of a chance, it might end up being one of your favorite reads of the year.

I would have liked this book much more if the narrative style was different. Books told in second voice narrative are not pleasurable for me. But having said that, the story was engaging. Abe and Jane have been married for many years, and Jane is dying. Abe recounts their life in this story, the good, the bad and the ugly. NYC is beautifully represented, and Central Park plays a significant role in the narrative. Recommended for all public libraries.

This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer is the highly recommended literary New York City story which covers decades of a marriage and family, while also serving as an ode to Central Park. The chapters are told from the point-of-view of each person and that of the park.

Central Park has been part of the lives and marriage of Abe and Jane for fifty years. The park witnesses their love, struggles, emotions, depression, and frustration. Now Jane, an accomplished artist, is dying from cancer, and Abe, a successful author, is recount their lives and relationship, every little memory, beginning with when they met. Next chapters unfold from the point of view of Alice, a graduate student who falls in love with Abe. The story of Max, the son of Abe and Jane comes next. He resents his mother, avoids relationships and is also well acquainted with the park. The narrative then moves back to Abe and Jane.

The narrative captures the complexity and intimacy of each person's story. There are parts of the novel that are quite touching, insightful, and poignant. There are beautifully written sections, but I can't say that about the whole novel. This Is a Love Story has a whole lot of potential but I struggled with the style of the writing. Then, once I was getting into the cadence of it, the switch in characters happened and I had to attend to a new characters emotions.

I appreciate the story and the intense emotions, but the writing was a turn-off for me. These might have worked better as interconnected short stories with a clear delineation between them. 3.5 rounded up. Thanks to Penguin/Dutton for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Quiet, intimate, and impactful This is a Love Story is a poetically written story that showcases all facets of a romantic relationship including the beauty, the boring, the cruel, and the power to endure. Predominantly told in second person, this is the story of Abe and Jane and their 50 year romance. Jane is dying and Abe recounts their life together as a way of keeping them going: the parts they knew—their courtship and early marriage, their blossoming creative lives—and the parts they didn’t always want to know—the determined young student of Abe’s looking for a love story of her own, and their son, Max, who believes his mother chose art over parenthood and who has avoided love and intimacy at all costs.

I strongly dislike anything written in second person, so this book just did not work for me. I tried, because the general idea and theme are appealing to me, but the tone and structure was ultimately too off-putting.

A story that dives into all aspects of what it means to love and be loved. It had the balance to be light but also heartbreaking

lyrical and werll written, mostly pretty great, but unfortunately has some weakness near the middle. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

This is an emotional story, at times really powerful. I might have preferred to stay longer with one or two of the characters, because the interiority was so strong, but all characters were well drawn.

Yes, this is a love story. However, in addition to the romance implied by it's title, this story shows the side of love that can be brutally honest and heart wrenching. We are told this story of Abe and Jane, their courtship, marriage and eventually her terminal illness, through varying points of view.
The most moving is Abe recounting their lives to Jane as she lay dying, the most unique is making Central Park itself a comforting and observant character.
If I were to choose one word that defined the meaning and importance of this story, it would be 'memory'. Memory; the way Jane remembers, the way Abe reminds her in his gentle monologues at her bedside, and toward the end, him struggling to retain those memories that define a relationship spanning years, for himself. A well written and literary look at love, art and a family of three over the course of 5 decades.
Thank you Penguin Dutton and NetGalley for the chance to be an early reader!

The description and storyline of this book were great but I felt like I kept turning pages waiting for something, anything to happen and grab me into the story. Sorry, this book wasn’t for me.

This book is just hard to read. While I understand what the author is trying to do. It just is very difficult to read. It is told from all the perspectives of one family and the people who played a role in the love story of this family. I appreciate that this love story is raw and emotional, and real. There is no sugar coating the characters in this story. Their stories are real life stories. A mom facing postpartum depression, and cancer. A father who is struggling with his wife’s disconnect and being drawn to another woman. The young woman who finds her professor to be enchanting and alluring. A son who grew up not knowing what his mother’s love was like but realizing that both his parents were important but not really knowing how to connect with people beyond a fleet moment in time. It just is written in a way that is so hard to get through and personally I didn’t enjoy it.
Thank you to Penguin Publishing Dutton and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I requested this ARC because I liked the premise of the story - Abe and Jane growing older together and faced with a terminal illness in addition to all the other things going on in their lives. The reality of the book was that it was written in a style that grates on me - the only thing to tell you who was saying what was the chapter headings indicating whose story we might hear now. Not a single quotation mark, sentences that seemed to ramble on. The reader gathers that each person was successful in their chosen fields, Abe as an author, Jane as an artist. The couple occasionally came together to talk about these things. They had a son, Max, and his mother suffered from severe postpartum depression which, at the time, was not well-recognized nor was it taken as a serious health concern, one which needed to be treated.

I did finish the book, but skimmed a lot of it, thinking it must surely get better along the way. For me, it did not.

This is just not the right book for me. The writing is super repetitive (purposely) and that just annoyed me.