Title: Twice Shy Author: Sarah Hogle
Published: April 6, 2021
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 302
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start.
Yet when she arrives, it seems her troubles have only just begun. Not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn't the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who's as grouchy as he is gorgeous—and it turns out he has very different vision for the property's future.
Convincing the taciturn Wesley to stop avoiding her and compromise is a task more formidable than the other dying wishes Great-Aunt Violet left behind. But when Maybell uncovers something unexpectedly sweet beneath Wesley's scowls, and as the two slowly begin to let their guard down, they might learn that sometimes the smallest steps outside one's comfort zone can lead to the greatest rewards.
In her sophomore novel, following what was hailed as one of the best romance novels (or “rom-coms” if you like) of 2020, Sarah Hogle had quite a task ahead of her. Twice Shy is a slightly twee (yet earnest) story about two strangers who inherit a dilapidated mansion in Tennessee and who, somehow, have to figure out what to do with (a) the gargantuan mound of useless gadgets the former owner purchased from QVC and (b) the fact that they maybe-probably-definitely can’t stand each other.
As I indicated, Twice Shy is more cutesy and fairytale-like than Hogle’s debut, You Deserve Each Other. Which is not to say that it’s shallow or lacking in substance; it’s simply that the author uses a lighter hand and a softer tone in her approach to the various Obstacles and Conflicts facing the protagonists. Maybell Parish’s coping mechanism is to daydream and fantasize, and so it’s fitting that the entire plot of Twice Shy is wrapped in a gauzy layer of make-believe. Yet the book isn’t meant to be read as a parody—the emotions, struggles, and journey undertaken by Maybell and Wesley are deadly serious. Hogle has not adopted a light-hearted tone in order to undermine the validity of her characters’ reality, which I think is a hard balance to find, but is done to great effect here.
Anyway, there’s a little intro for ya. Now onto the reason we’re all here. See, sometimes I write a review just to talk generally about what I did and didn’t like about a particular story. Other times, I’m compelled to focus on just a single issue that’s been eating at me. This is one of the latter instances, and I don’t want to beat around the bush.
At the outset, I do want to make it clear that I really, really enjoyed this book! Twice Shy is charming and whimsical and altogether enjoyable. Hogle is an excellent writer, and she’s one of the best authors out there writing that somewhat controversial (yet very marketable) low-heat love story that’s a cross between a romance novel and an early 2000s rom-com movie. She’s zeroed in on her talents and perfected them. But I’m not here to talk about all that. So just take it for granted that I have X amount of positive things to say. (I truly would recommend this book, in spite of what I say below!)
But…to be very clear: the climax of this novel occurs when the hero overcomes crippling social anxiety, claustrophobia, and aerophobia (fear of flying) by
*checks notes*
The Power of True Love…!
Wesley removes soemthing from his pocket, then hands it to me.
A note.
Maybell Parrish loves me.
“I read that note ten thousand times on the flight over,” he confesses, standing up. The paper is already worn out, ink smeared sideways with a thumbprint. I am going to fill his pockets with more reminders. I’ll put them in his boots and his wallet, all over the house, the grounds. I’m going to bury treasure.
“I’m so proud of you,” I whisper, reaching up to capture either side of his face in my hands.
Xanax? Professionally-guided exposure therapy? Trained emotional support animals?
Sarah Hogle doesn’t know them.
Is being loved, accepted, and supported an integral part of living with extreme anxiety? Absolutely! But, y’all. Wesley’s social anxiety is so bad that he cannot go to restaurants, ever. One time, he felt it was a valid choice to permanently move to Europe rather than fly back home after a vacation, because the thought of getting on a plane was so terrifying. Towards the end of the novel, Hogle shows him panicking so badly after boarding a plane that he literally blacks out and goes into a fugue state, ultimately finding himself at home with no clear memory of how that happened. This is not garden variety anxiety!!!
But somehow he gets one (1) pep talk from Maybell and is able to overcome 30 years of mental blocks and fly to Scotland. (Yeah, I get that he didn’t have a fun flight and wasn’t “cured,” but still. Point stands.)
I love the fairytale of a good romance novel. But mental health is not one of the things to put a rosy gloss on. At no point is the subject of therapy, medication, or any other strategy to care for Wesley’s mental health even mentioned in the text. Whether intentional or not, the narrative suggests that acceptance and validation from his romantic partner are the only tools Wesley needs to begin making changes toward a future that isn’t governed by his anxiety and phobia. This isn’t true. More than that, the author’s framing of this issue implicitly suggests that people who aren’t sustained by the mere reassurance of unconditional love are somehow less-than or lazy or deserving of their disabilities (etcetera, etcetera).
Respectfully, I submit that this is both irresponsible and dangerously simplistic.
While I haven’t read this one, I really enjoyed ‘You Deserve Each Other.’ But I had the same reaction to the end of that one. I thought those characters needed their own therapists as well as a couples counselor to teach them better communication skills. So it’s interesting to see that Hogle remains ignorant of her characters’ need for professional mental health services.
Oooooof. Oof. This is the kind of thing that really spoils books for me! Even apart from the mental health representation side of things (which I am miffed about, as well), it doesn’t feel like good craft. If you set something up as this massive, life-altering problem, and then it gets fixed because one character writes the other character a lovely note, it just feels like a cheat on a story level. Als, omg, would that I could solve my mental illness through love!! What a life that would be!