ONLINEBOOKCLUB.org review: 4 out of 4 stars

This Nearly was Mine, by Nancy Farkas, is an engaging tale of love, loss, and learning to live with life’s decisions. Annie, wife, therapist, and working mother of three, finally tells her story, the whole thing, about a summer with her soul mate, but marrying the love of her life. Her summer in Spain was just supposed to give her perspective for her relationship with Bill, but instead she meets Francisco. Francisco is charming, funny, passionate, and a bit terrifying: everything that Bill is not. But after she returns from her summer vacation, Annie ends things with Bill, and marries Matthew. She is then reunited with Francisco through a trip her daughter takes to Spain. Where will this friendship end up, even Annie seems unsure. 

In the beginning, sometimes it is hard to track Annie’s thoughts. She has a few visitors while she is in Spain and when they are introduced into the story, Annie gives back story about them. Farkas makes use of flashback type writing so the characters speak using the same verb tense as the present timeline in the story, but there is not necessarily a paragraph break or any other sort of cue as to why this information is included at that precise moment. But after the first two, it becomes expected for the author to give background in this manner for each character and is missed when she doesn’t expound such as with the character Antonio. I personally was unsure what Antonio’s real purpose was in the beginning of the story outside of how Annie was reconnected with Francisco.  

I initially read this book in two days. It drew me in. I cared about these characters and their lives. I wanted to know how Matthew handled the friendship between Francisco and Annie. I wanted to know why Annie didn’t marry Francisco when she had the chance. I wanted to know if Francisco was a good kisser. These characters were so loveable, even when their world views collided. Nancy Farkas created real, endearing characters that could easily live right next door.

I rate this book a 4 out of 4. I complained about the backstory, but it was not enough to draw this down to a three for me. I even love the ending, which is not a stereotypical neatly tied bow wrap up. It is beautiful. My only other desired change to this piece is that she would not translate the Spanish. There is not an overwhelming amount of Spanish used and much of it is used frequently enough that most should be able to comprehend it. But again, this personal preference while reading is not enough to bring the storyline down from a four.

Reading This Nearly Was Mine felt like chatting with an old friend over a large cup of tea. Nancy Farkas wrote a fiction piece that desperately wants to be a memoir. It held my attention as it addressed my own love of travel, languages, and what if’s. I would encourage anyone who enjoys travel, love, and just engaging fiction to read This Nearly was Mine.
​