One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis

My Ratings:
Vocabulary:  *****
Ingredients: *****
Satisfaction: ***** 
Lexile Level: N/A but I would say around 1000HL, recommended for young adults and above
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
My Opinions: A happy marriage. A beautiful family. A dream home. A lawyer. Emily Coleman. She has a pretty perfect life. The next day, she decides to leave her familiar past for London and loses herself in the city as a woman named Cat. She finds a new home in North London and a fun-loving friend named Angel. Cat has buried her past and lies about her history and who she is. However, she is constantly reminded of her past during the day and night making her feel guilty for what she has become. But the shocking revelation only comes after she takes things one step too far.

This is a tough one. I loved the beginning of the book. Each chapter was from a different character's point of view. This technique allowed me to understand more about each character's history and their reasons for their current state. I could clearly understand all of them. The philandering father of Emily. The hard-working mother of Emily. The drug-addict and alcoholic twin sister, Catherine. The beautiful and lovable Ben. The care-free Angel. The troubled and messed up Emily. 

After reading the beginning, I thought to myself of how perfect of a life Emily had. Why in the world did she have to give it up? She trades her job as a lawyer for a receptionist position at an advertising agency. She trades her healthy habits for secretly consuming cocaine in the restroom periodically. It just did not make any sense. As I kept reading, I came to realize the events and people who just broke Emily. I started tearing up at some parts. Cat was Emily's way of reconstructing herself even though Emily yearned for her old life. Her process takes the wrong turn at one point and leaves her getting bailed out of jail by Ben, her husband.

After this point in the book, everything was really fast and was pretty confusing because of all the details dumped into the pages. If Seskis had not overdone the ending, I feel like I could have given this book a full five stars. Not because I couldn't understand it, but it was just too quick and overwhelming in comparison to the slow-paced beginning where the reader was able to grow accustomed to the plot. Maybe the fast paced ending was Seskis' way of conveying the message of how quickly and easily things can fall apart. Who knows! I would recommend this book for school projects as well as a leisure read.