Together by Julie Cohen

A story told in reverse, you meet Emily and Robbie, the dreamy, fateful couple that any good romance novelist would dream of. We quickly realise that, whilst they are fated to be together, there is a secret of some form which both drives them apart and binds them throughout the novel. At the inception, in the present day, they live in their idyllic coastal home, content and happy with their respective seafaring and obstetrician careers and two sons. We work backwards, and see a story of infertility and infidelity, alongside battles fought with alcoholism in Maine, Florida and Cambridge.  Importantly, as a reader, you do not have to wait for the final reveal that occurs in the last few pages, as everything is not as it seems. Cohen has displayed dexterity in this technique, where it seems as though the facts have been presented, but quickly, Cohen leads you to scratch the surface beyond this. Quickly, the characters endear themselves to you, and I tore through this book due to my investment in them.

Pointedly, I would not describe myself as a ‘romance’ reader, despite my bookshelf containing a fairly rounded cross section of genres, however Together overcomes this label, and is one of the better of its kind. The first thing I thought when I finished was that this would be a fantastic beach read for an intelligent friend. It does have all the trappings of romance, and some of the cliché phrasing (there is mention of the smell of hair repeatedly or ‘kissing tenderly’), however it is cleverly written, and does not have the “mind-numbing” effect that I see from more simple romance novels, that I promptly abandon at the villa before returning home – this one would stick firmly in my suitcase.

The conclusion… as anyone who has read Together will know, is difficult. It concerns something morally indefensible, and by nature of this secret, would have to be revealed at the end lest no one pick this up at a book shop. For me personally, I found it dissatisfying, and made me wish I hadn’t read it in the first place, although, that is of course the point that the author is making. However, I believe my dissatisfaction could be placed into how a reader likes to be encouraged to work something out, without having it spelt out for them – in short, we as readers like to flatter our intelligence, and there was little ego massaging to be found in this finish. The reveal, whilst I had considered it as an avenue at the very start, shocked me, so perhaps it is merely my own ego that is preventing my enjoyment.  It is undeniable that interesting albeit controversial issues are explored wholeheartedly – euthanasia, private adoption, and of course the matter of the “big reveal.”