{Review} ORDINARILY PERFECT by K.C. Leigh

ASIN #: B00JUE782A

File Size: 604 KB

Page Count: 329

Copyright: April 21, 2014

Book Summary:

(Taken from Goodreads)

No one ever sees it coming. One 'ordinary' evening 34 year-old Alistair Tunbridge is injured in a freak accident that leaves him in a coma, snatched from a life of competence and comfortable success. He awakens to the horror of not being able to control his own body, and the cheerful company of fellow patient Damien, who seems to really understand. His wife Lauren, when he remembers her, is cool and detached and sides with 'them' - the doctor, nurses and therapists who insist they know how he must do things now. Everything. Beginning to resent Lauren's detachment, he repeatedly pushes her away - not realizing she is one of the people who can help him the most. Not until he's confronted with the knowledge that Damien and Lauren have shared confidences - and learned their life-changing secrets - that he reclaims responsibility and begins to make a difference in all their lives. This work of fiction is written by a Physiotherapist, based on hundreds of true stories of how ordinary people cope when their lives are touched by disaster.

Kathy's Review:

You know when you visit someone in the hospital? You don’t want to be there. No one does – hospitals are scary, they smell weird, and people in them are sick or dying. It’s not a pleasant place to be, with the possible exception of the maternity ward. And it’s boring. You sit, sometimes a nurse comes in and does stuff, maybe you get up and walk around with the patient, depending on his or her condition. You watch the clock tick. You made idle conversation. You go get bland food at the cafeteria.

The same goes for being a patient in a hospital. You’ve got nothing but time, and it passes very slowly. You go through your healing process, you see doctors, you rest, you eat, you get out of bed, you walk around, but that’s pretty much it.

NOW imagine reading a book that describes, in detail, all of the above activity.

I can’t imagine that to many of you, this sounds interesting. And I feel the same way. I had a hard time getting into this book because I was waiting for the “story” to kick in. It did, at times, when we were privy to the thoughts of Lauren, Ally, etc. I was mostly interested in Lauren’s pregnancy and her emotions given the state of her husband. But for the most part, I felt like I was nursing a lukewarm cup of horrible coffee and smelling sterile medical instruments and sick people smell.

Kudos to the author for putting the depth of detail into the book as she did; it’s obvious she knows her stuff and I didn’t for once question the medical accuracy of what was going on. It’s just not really engaging as a work of fiction.

What I do think she did nicely is create the rapport between the Gerry and Lauren, and Ally and Damien. Gerry, the doctor, plays a major role in the novel, which is interesting because at least from my perspective, you don’t think of doctors as having emotional connections to their patients. How could they? With the amount of heartbreak that would allow, it just doesn’t seem possible. And yet, because of Lauren’s background, Gerry breaks that wall down and is able to communicate with her peer-to-peer.

My dirty mind kept thinking, are these two going to fall for each other? And that’s some straight-up soap opera stuff. But, it would have been more interesting … ;)

At some point, though, I found myself bouncing between boredom and engagement with the story. The parts which described the medical stuff, I skimmed or skipped entirely until I saw dialogue. Then I read those parts with interest. It would be unfair for me to say I didn’t like this book at all, because in spite of the aspects which I found to be boring, I found myself liking the characters and wanting to know how it all ended up.

I’d suggest that although the author is very knowledgeable about physical therapy, that this part take a major backseat in any future writing she does.


*An ecopy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.