Abandoned by Booklikes

I ended up reading another book by Center and wanted to revisit her other books. I honestly liked this one, but didn't really need the romance for the main character (Margaret). Also I am not a fan of male characters ignoring it when a female character tells you what their name is and they refuse to use it. I swear I have seen this happen in other romance books and I want everyone to just stop putting that in there. The love story to me was really between Margaret and her estranged sister Kit. It was also between these two sisters and their PITA mother (who loves them) and their saint of a father.  

"How to Walk Away" by Katherine Center begins with something that should make every romance reader's heart soar. The main character, Margaret Jacobsen, is proposed to by her long-time boyfriend Chip while he is flying a private aircraft. Even though Margaret hates flying (so do I) and really wishes that her boyfriend listened to her more and didn't turn her getting onto a plane as a test of their relationship. From there we hit an instant low, the plane ends up crashing and Margaret is left with burns, scars, and paralyzed. Chip is left untouched. From there the book follows Margaret on her journey through surgeries and rehabilitation. 

I liked Margaret. You end up finding out that she tends to not rock the boat. Doesn't like to argue or fight. And is the "pretty one" in the family. She misses her sister Kit, but after being pushed away for a couple of years, she refuses to try to reach out to her anymore. The accident pushes all of the family together and allows them to be more honest with each other. My favorite scenes where with Margaret and Kit. 

You find out that their mother is a pill and a half, but she does love them. I liked the growth of this character a lot in this book though I started off hating her. I think Center did a good job with this and didn't turn her into a caricature. I really enjoyed Margaret's dad too. He just loved his girls and his wife and wants everything to work out for them.

Chip was what you think he was from the beginning of the book. As I said earlier, I didn't really like the love interest in this one, Ian. He just didn't do a thing for me, and ignoring Margaret telling him to not call her Maggie got on my nerves. 

The writing was really good and it looks as if Center did research on skin grafts and injuries to the spin and what rehabilitation looks like when you are trying to build up your upper body strength. The flow was okay though sometimes the book jumped around too much when it would go from present day to Margaret then talking about something else or bringing up another incident. Not too much to wreck my reading enjoyment, but it happened here and there enough for me to notice.

The setting of the book mainly follows Margaret at the hospital. We do eventually move to other locations (no spoilers).

The epilogue was wonderfully done though and maybe I teared up a bit. Maybe.