Steve's interior life has been in turmoil for months as NIKA has grown too large to be managed as a small business, and he's once again trying to balance his own impulses around what's best for him against what's best for those he loves most. While took a European Birgit coming to America to set Steve's story in motion, it'll be an American Bridget in Europe that helps him finally achieve «Lagom» and bring it to a close… at least until his eldest son and daughter hit puberty.
Size: 3465 KB (663,204 words)
Genre: Coming of Age
Sex Contents: Some Sex
Tags: Ma/Fa, Ma/ft, Fa/Fa, Mult, Workplace, Polygamy/Polyamory, First, Slow
Review by Bud Ugly [other reviews by Bud Ugly]
Reviewed: - (Review Updated: )
First, let me note that I read this book in its entirety on the author's Patreon page, so even though it's currently at about chapter 60 on SOL, I've read it all through its end, and this review is based on the whole book.
If you're not familiar with them, the A Well-Lived Life books (a.k.a. AWLL) comprise a truly epic coming-of-age saga that chronicles the life of Steve Adams, his friends, and his family from high school well into adulthood. At 10 books in the original AWLL series, another 10 in the AWLL2 series, and more to come in AWLL3, this is a real beast, with more than 7.5 million words in it to date. And it's really just one big book--the books in no way stand alone, and if you tried to jump in and start reading this volume without having read the others first, you'd almost certainly be lost. In fact, there's a Wiki that the author has set up to keep track of all of the characters; in 20+ books, there are a lot of them, and they come and go throughout the series. I've read all 20 of the volumes published so far.
Book 10 is defined by a period in time, more than anything else; I can't really say that it deals with any one set of issues any more or less than any of the other books do. Some key parts of this book deal with the main character's son Jesse, his youth hockey team, and their trip to Russia to play there. That's certainly not all that this book is about, but it's something that sticks out in my recollection of the story.
With respect to the plot, AWLL2 Book 10 is a continuation of the previous books and is consistent with those. It holds together well, with no big holes or leaps. One of my key concerns with any book is believability, and this series is as believable as any other coming-of-age story here on SOL (I mean really, I don't believe any young man growing up has this many meaningful sexual liaisons, nor do I believe that all of his lovers would get along well with each other, but like I said, it's no worse than any other of its genre in that respect). There are a number of loose ends that have appeared throughout the first 19 books that are not addressed here, but this isn't the end, so we can only look forward to their resolution in future volumes.
Then we get to my major issue with this particular book. In all of the AWLL books, the main character is quite outspoken about his political and philosophical beliefs. It becomes a running joke in the books, where other characters refer to his rants by number (and all the rants, along with their numbers, are posted on the AWLL Wiki so you can find them). My issue with AWLL2 Book 10 is that the ratio of (political rant + preaching) to (actual story) is, in my opinion, too high. There were several points where I found myself saying, "Okay, alright already, enough; just give me the rant number and get on with the story." I believe I would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't had the feeling that I was being bludgeoned at times with the politics and preaching. I hope that the author will tone it down a bit in future books.
Technically, this book, and all of them in this series, are very good, but not great. In general, they're well-written and well-edited, and AWLL2 Book 10 is no exception. However, the author has his own rules and standards that are not found in any authoritative reference or style guide, and while he's consistent in their application, I can't give a high score when he's using his own nonstandard rules of capitalization, punctuation, spelling, etc.
Bottom line is that despite the issues I describe above, the AWLL books are a great series; it's for good reason that they and the author have won awards here on SOL. While it's somewhat daunting to look at a 20-book series, if you've not read it, I recommend this series to you. My opinion is that this latest book is less appealing than the others in the series for the reasons I mention above, but it's still head-and-shoulders above most other books here on SOL. I recommend this book and this series.
