When Lexi Blake was twelve years old, a fortune teller gave her the following cryptic message:
In your thirtieth year, once the dog jumps over you, your life will change in the most unexpected ways.
Lexi is thirty now and the following unexpected things have occurred:
•While walking through Central Park enjoying a beautiful fall day, Lexi eats dirt when a careless dog owner throws a frisbee at her head. A dog jumps over her.
•Lexi gets a promotion that pays less than her current job.
•Her crush announces that he’s engaged.
•Her apartment turns condo and she can’t afford the down payment.
In order to escape her bad luck, she takes a vacation to visit a good friend in Creek Water, Missouri. But as it turns out, fate has a lot more in store for Lexi Blake. (Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.)
Having read The Event, the first book in the Creek Water series, I highly anticipated reading the second installment and learning more about the additional characters within this small, idyllic town. And of course, I had just as much fun if not more so, in Lexi and her unconventional journey in finding where she belongs.
I appreciated the metaphysical nuances that dot Lexi’s world, even when she least expects it and at times, doesn’t want to. From the fortune teller to some of the townspeople, it added an element of mystery and intrigue, while also developing a deeper connection for Lexi with her family, and the past. At first, hearing about a life change that stems from a dog jump would seem silly, but Lexi soon learns that so much begins to unfold with that one strange event, and it was nice as a reader to live vicariously through her actions, to go from knowing only one way of living to completely re-rolling everything. She goes from being a die-hard New Yorker to an extended stay with a friend in Creek Water, a far cry from what she’s used to. There is this sense of wiping the slate clean and beginning again, a refreshing experience.
Lexi’s potential love interest, Beau, is the epitome of a Byronic hero. At times she doesn’t know whether to love him or hate him, and isn’t even sure of what he thinks of her or what he wants of her. It doesn’t help that he seems to be taken, or maybe he isn’t? His mixed signals have her going all over the place, and this type of contention only seems to add fuel to the potential couple and is a nice added layer for the reader, in trying to suss out what the outcome will be. Will they, or won’t they?
The biggest storyline here, though, is the one that is a classic Dineen favorite: the story of family. From Lexi and her family, to the original characters we first discovered in The Event, all of the dynamics better project a theme that begs us all to appreciate the little things, the simple, easy life, the people who support us and love us, even if at times they drive us completely crazy. It slows down the incredibly fast-paced experience so many of us can relate to, letting us take a pause and a breather and enjoy our discoveries. While The Move could easily be read as a standalone, I'm looking forward to reading the third book in this series next. Another fantastic, five-star read!
Thanks to Whitney Dineen for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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