Who doesn’t love a good Nicholas Sparks book? I know I do, so when he came out with Two by Two, I knew I just had to read it. Russell (Russ) Green is married to Vivian, and together they have a daughter, London. When London is born, Vivian becomes a stay-at-home-mom. Russell works hard at an advertising company, and even though his boss can be hard to work for at times, he seems to be doing well.
Things seem to be doing well for the family. It’s been six years since London was born and the family has gotten into a routine. One day, he begins to realize that he is getting on his boss’s bad side, and he knows exactly where this will lead, he will be fired in the near future. Upon realizing his, he decides to start up his own advertising company, something that he has always thought about. This is when he begins to notice the problems in his marriage. Vivian seems to be unwilling to change her lifestyle, even temporarily, while he sets up a new business and they have no income. She continues her day to day life, shopping as she normally does. After a few months of no income, Russ realizes that it’s going to take longer to set up his business than he thought. Suddenly, one day Vivian announces that she has a job interview, she hadn’t even told Russ that she was thinking or returning to work. She is hired after this interview, and begins working for someone that Russ had worked with in advertising, someone that he had a hard time working with. This job has her working long hours and requires overnight travel.
As Vivian begins work, her communication with Russ becomes less and less. She is easily set off, constantly blaming Russ of picking a fight, and not being able to drop things “after they have already discussed them.” Russ does his best to keep things normal for their daughter, taking her to all her activities while still trying to start up his new business. A few months after starting her new job, tells Russ that she has fallen in love with someone else, and she’s moving out.
Russ leans one his family, as his parents and sister live nearby. He also becomes close with one of parents of London’s friend, someone he had dated in the past, and one little mistake had led to a breakup. This parent is recently divorced and helps Russ as he struggles and needs to talk through everything that is going on.
Vivian doesn’t make Russ’s life easy, making demands of him, even though they are spilt up, and she is still hard to communicate with. She is hot and cold, he never knows what mood she’ll be in and how a conversation will go. And of course, they are left to fight over London, will she stay where she’s at, or move to Atlanta with her mom? All through this, Russ is still trying to set up his business, and deals with a family emergency.
One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book was that at the beginning of each chapter, there is a short flashback, when their daughter was born, when Russell met Vivian, and his life growing up. I really didn’t like the ending, although I realize why it had to be that way, I wish that it could have ended differently. Now the real question is, when will this book be turned into a movie?
