By Sara Steven
Having spent her twenties and thirties enjoying life with good friends and building a career she loves, it’s taken Katie until her forties to contemplate settling down. And she couldn’t be more delighted she waited.
So, why is her perfect groom standing gawping at her, wearing mismatched socks and sweating profusely? This can’t bode well.
With her special day in tatters, Katie has a decision to make. Does she snatch back the reigns of her old life and tighten her grip even more, or take a chance on change? Will she find the key to happiness at a Pilates class in a smelly old hall? Or is the curve ball heading her way too huge to handle? (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads)
Many books I’ve read focus on protagonists who may have one or two quirks, but other than that, they are an obvious protagonist who readers are meant to fall in love with. But that is not at all the case when it comes to Katie.
With all of her lists and rules and guidelines that are meant to keep things “easier,” we learn that Katie may not always be the easiest protagonist to love. What seems like a miscommunication with her fiancé turns into a much larger, defining moment in her world, a potential chance at breaking out from within the confines of the walls she’s clearly set up for herself. But, does she really need to or want to? While I could understand the way she feels towards him, given the situation involved, I wasn’t sure if maybe she’d been too hasty, and quick to blame.
A continual question that is asked of Katie is, “Do you really think you’ve found your happily-ever-after?” It’s hard to answer. It’s obvious she has questions when it comes to her love life, her friendships, or even the potential friendships that might come from doing things like Pilates classes or outdoor races--events that aren’t the usual go-to for her. But I also didn’t see any real attempt on her part to find that sublime happiness that everyone else either seems to have found, talks about, or dreams about. Not at first, anyway. It may have made her less loveable, yet it certainly made her much more memorable. And likeable, too.
I think what I appreciated most is that those truths and realisms within Katie’s personality made her real. She’s not always the nicest, and she might not always make choices that others seem to think she needs to make to find that happily-ever-after, but it was refreshing to have a character who goes against the grain of everything. I really didn’t know which direction she’d choose to go in, and that was part of her charm, and the charm in reading Colouring Outside The Lines.
Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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After a short career in teaching, she retrained as a nurse. She recently retired from her post as a Sleep Nurse Specialist and now spends her time writing Women’s Fiction novels and Romantic Comedy short stories.
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