Liz Madden has a storybook romance—high school sweethearts, second chances, and a happily-ever-after. But when she finds out that her husband cheated on her, she is forced to make the hard decision and walk away. Unable to reveal the betrayal to those closest to her, Liz instead takes refuge with her father and half-sister, Zoey.
Zoey is nursing her own broken heart after a devastating end to her first love. But true to Reid-sister heritage, she’s courting disaster with a no-strings-attached affair with her ex.
Liz's marital discord also brings their older sister, Cecilia, back to town. But Cecilia has complicated relationship issues of her own. She’s never forgiven their father for the affair he had seventeen years ago, and she’s also never accepted Zoey as part of the family.
As their respective heartbreaks draw Liz and Zoey closer together, Liz finds she is getting tired of walking the line between her two sisters.
The Reid sisters are each in over their heads. To make it through the summer, they'll have to heal the fractures between them. Sometimes, forgiveness isn’t always a straight line, and letting go is the only way forward. (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)
I loved learning about the Reid sisters! All three have varying degrees of obstacles and hurdles they need to overcome, but it all stems from their familial pasts. Liz has allowed her husband to come and go for most of their relationship, seemingly due to his fears of long-term commitment, while Cecilia can never commit–she never feels safe enough to let down her guard, for fear of getting hurt. Zoey can’t seem to let go of her destructive first love, even though she knows he’s done too much for them to come back from, seeing many similarities to big-sister Liz. If Liz always forgives her husband, shouldn’t Zoey forgive her ex, too?
My favorite aspect to it all is the relationship shown between the three primary characters, the struggles in forgiveness, and when to let go of something that no longer serves the soul anymore. I felt like the pain Liz feels when deciding on whether to stay in her marriage or not is honest and real, deciding whether a relationship decades in the making is worth salvaging, and her sisters are there as support and guidance, as best as they can. Cecilia is afraid of letting the past in, which involves Zoey in ways Cecilia can’t come to terms with, but with tough love maybe she can get there, because the family bonds are so important and worth fighting for.
Zoey discovers that as much as Liz has been a role model for her, sometimes it’s OK to venture out into uncharted territories and make her own path that delineates from Liz, even if that means possible failure. I really felt like Zoey had a coming-of-age experience within this story, growing into herself and trusting her own gut more. She discovers she can’t make anyone love her, whether that’s her ex or in some sense, her own sister Cecilia.
Really, each primary character had some serious growth happen, which was pretty amazing to see. It seemed like the overall message was to highlight how change is inevitable and that it's OK when it happens, because sometimes the most beautiful things come from letting go. The First Love Myth was masterful and important, a definite five-star read!
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