Books & Spoons Review for BREAKUP IN A SMALL TOWN by Kristina Knight

This isn't the man she married...

Jenny Buchanan never considered what "for better or for worse" meant when she married Adam Buchanan at nineteen. Six years and two little boys later, "for worse" arrives in the form of a tornado that ravages Slippery Rock and injures Adam.

Now he's a stranger to his family and love won't be enough to bring him back. Only when Jenny asks him to move out does Adam become the husband she needs...but Adam isn't the only one who's changed.

​As their attraction sparks back to life, Jenny and Adam must learn what it is to grow up and grow together before this small-town breakup lasts forever.

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An emotional, heart-wrenching, and thought-provoking story that is much topical right now in the current events. Maybe that is the reason why - I admit - I have kept putting this book off. I saw in the blurb that a tornado had leveled part of the town, and the hero was injured because of it, and suddenly all the hurricane, earthquake and wildfire news came that much closer and my idea of escape-reading was far-fetched. 
Jenny and Adam Buchanan had married young, straight out of high school, after Adam had been in a serious car accident. The book has timing issues throughout the eARC. When they have been together ten years, when married six, when married nine years, when they got married when they were 18, then when they were 19, then being now 24, or 26 or next time 28, loving each other half of their lives but together only ten... So, the fact was, they got married very young and were under 30 years old. They lives were set around the circle of family, taking care of their boys, building up the family business until the tornado hit the town, and Adam was seriously injured, again. 
It has been three months from Adam's injury when Jenny's cup runs over and life gets too much to handle. Adam's recovery is not happening fast enough and keeping up all the balls in the air is just too much for her and the laundry-gate happens. 
As I was reading this story, I realized I was reacting to Jenny not only as disliking her as a character, but resenting her on a very personal level, as well. It has only been three MONTHS from the tornado yet she expects things to be moving on, Adam to snap out of it, and start to adjust to life in a wheelchair, and other limitations that could be part of his life rest of his days. I don't remember when I have been as mad at a character as I was with Jenny. As a person with a partial disability, and not at the state of wheelchair or epilepsy, it took me three YEARS to adjust to the new life, to adjust the medication, to adjust not being able to work, to snap out of the funk, and she expects him to perform as a functioning, contributing person after three MONTHS?! Lady... It is a good thing she is a fictional character, right?! 
I liked Adam. Maybe it was easy for me to relate to him. His struggle to find his new place in his old life was realistic. His feelings for his family are true, his need to protect them from himself are noble, if not what they needed or wanted. I loved the connection he builds up with his sons, they brought tears to my eyes several times with the earnest, emotional scenes as they adjust to the new life. 
So this story came to be a bit too personal for me, and thus it was difficult to be 'partial and fair' at times with Jenny and the twists in the plot. But I do believe the story deserves the four Spoons because it is well written and the story has a great flow, it engages the thoughts and emotions of the reader, and the characters have depth and show development as the tale unfolds. The great truth about saying "I do", and 'do' being an active verb, not an emotion or a feeling, and thus promising to choose love and commitment each day, and actively work towards that goal with one's actions and behavior as well, is a great lesson and reminder to the readers. Life is not easy, it can be very challenging, and to choose to act upon the promise made, even when everything goes wrong, that is the true test of the commitment to love each other in sickness and in health... 
An interesting, challenging, and inspirational story about marriage and love at the most trying times in life
~ Four Spoons

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