ONLINEBOOKCLUB.org review-3 out of 4 stars

This Nearly Was Mine: A Novel by Nancy Farkas is one of the most unusual books I have ever read in the Romance genre. The book reads much like a personal memoir and I found that a great puzzle in coming to a decision on a rating. The novel is an in-depth look at the life and loves of Annie, starting with her life-changing decision to travel to Spain in 1980 as a young woman in the midst of finishing her Masters in Social Work and the impact the impromptu trip had on her loves and path in life. The turmoil of emotions over the years and a few up-and-down relationships play a huge role in Annie’s focus and feelings of self-worth. Her bonds of family and friendship, the roles they play in her life, and the impact the fulfillment or heartbreak of those bonds create in her mind are the major focus of the story.

Throughout the novel travel also plays a major role in the text and it relates many vacations. The best described of these is the pivotal trip to Spain and the author takes some care to describe the immediate surroundings, however, the latter travel sequences are not given the same attention. Annie’s career is also in the background through much of the story with only one clear narrative to give the reader an idea of how social work may have played a role in the forming of her mindset. Farkas’ writing is quite enjoyable otherwise. It is very conversational and has a flow of natural thought processes. For example, with a new character being introduced and then a ‘fill you in a bit’ and then back to ‘where were we?’ This relaxed style I felt was very easy to read even through complicated introductions and personal histories that set the stage for the relevance of that character’s comments or actions and the impact they had on Annie. 

The author frequently quotes movies, music, and pop-culture from across five decades. I found this very interesting as some things I recognized and some I did not, so it occurs to me each reader will get a different impression of Annie’s meanings depending on what they are familiar with. It also spawned the thought that future readers will have to cue their neuro AI to download archival data to figure out what in the world was being said (insert surprised face emoji here).

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to any mature reader. I think it was intelligently written and both men and women could relate to the character and her very human flaws. It is by no means erotica and not what you would normally expect from a romance. It was a novel reading experience for me as most memoirs I have encountered are not so insightful about the person doing the writing. There were very few editing errors but several formatting errors on the Kindle edition, primarily sections of underlined text.

Here again, I come to my confusion with rating the novel. As a memoir, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. It was an enjoyable read but the gaps in Annie’s career narratives and the poorly fleshed out travel descriptions gave the story a lack of depth. If however, this was a completely fictional tale then Nancy Farkas is one of the most talented character writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading and I would recommend this as a 4-star book.