When does pretending become lying? Molly's father, Graham, dealing with declining health due to MS, is a "pretend therapist." He's a real therapist... but he believes in the adage "fake it until you make it." If you want to be brave, pretend to be brave. If you want to be happy, pretend to be happy. That sort of thing.
Molly and her husband are living in San Diego, close to Aidan's happy family. They've reached the point where the only way they will have children is to adopt. The process necessary to go through in order to adopt brings many of Molly's secrets - and lies - to the front of her mind. Molly has lied to Aiden about her family. She's told him her parents are dead. In actuality, her father is dead but her two mothers - both her adoptive mother and her birth mother - who each had a huge role in her upbringing - are very much alive in North Carolina.
We experience the summer of 1990 when Molly falls in love for the first time, rebels against her parents and experiences loss after loss. We also go through Molly and Aiden's journey towards parenthood in 2014.
It brought back memories of the summers in my teens when I thought I knew it all and that my parents were just trying to hamper me. It brought back memories of the years when I wondered if I'd ever be a parent. I loved the relationship Abby had with her dad. I loved the way young Abby tried to figure out right from wrong. This book simply delighted me.
Another thing I realized that I loved about this book is that the ending wasn't rushed. Chamberlain let the story play out. She didn't rush to wrap things up. As I was reading, I recognized that a big complaint of mine about other books is how quickly they are finished. The climax comes... and then a few pages later, the story is over. That wasn't the case with Pretending to Dance. In fact, if I hadn't finished the book as quickly as I had, I considered writing a blog post about authors that have crash endings to otherwise wonderful novels.
The one thing I didn't like about the book would be a spoiler and if you've been following me long enough, you know that's not my style. To be sort of vague (and to jog my memory when I read this post before discussing Pretending to Dance with my book club in a few weeks), I didn't really understand Chamberlain's handling of a particular issue. She treated this particular issue as if there had been no social evolution regarding this issue between 1990 and 2014. I felt that 1990 Molly's thoughts and reactions were spot on while 2014 Molly's thoughts and reactions were stuck in 1990. And I don't mean in the sense that she kept going back to how she felt in 1990. It's as if this issue hadn't been in the news or in novels or in discussions over the past 24 years. The evolution of this issue could have and probably should have been reflected as Molly comes to terms with her family's experience in 1990. Enough said on that! This is the only reason why I gave this book a 4-star rating on Goodreads rather than a 5-star rating. I really did love this book.
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