Results May Vary/Bethany Chase Can you ever really know the person you love?She never saw it coming. Without even a shiver of suspicion to warn her, Caroline Hammond discovers that her husband is having an affair with a man—a revelation that forces her to question their entire history together, from their early days as high school sweethearts through their ten years as a happily married couple. In her now upside-down world, Caroline begins envisioning her life without the relationship that has defined it: the loneliness of being an “I” instead of a “we”; the rekindled yet tenuous closeness with her younger sister; and the unexpected—and potentially disastrous—attraction she can't get off her mind. Caroline always thought she knew her own love story, but as her husband's other secrets emerge, she must decide whether that story's ending will mean forgiving the man she's loved for half her life, or facing her future without him.Compassionate and uplifting, Results May Vary is a bittersweet celebration of the fact that in love and in life, we rarely get exactly what we bargained for.
This book had such a fantastic plot and I was so invested while reading.
 
I found myself leaning both ways because I just couldn't decide what I wanted for Caroline. I loved the characters and the many aspects that the author incorporated and I felt like there were so many possible ways that the book could have taken.
 
After Caroline begins the process of divesting from her husband, she looks into dating anew, and the awkwardness of this situation is so delightfully agonising to read about. Since she'd basically spent her entire life with Adam, she'd never really gone through the process of dating someone new, of handling the social cues and knowing how to appropriately act. It often seems just as painful for all of this, but the way she handled it made me feel as if I was reading about a good friend.
 
Each chapter started with a quote about love which partially made me cringe because it often felt painful to think of Caroline bitterly coming across these. Most of them were really sweet or fascinating though and I thought these added to the book.
 
I loved the amount of gay in this book and the issues that realising one is gay can bring up, and I really appreciated how gay was a completely ordinary thing to be and not at all a big deal.
 
I simply adored Caroline's best friend, Jonathan. I also fell in love with her sister Ruby. And with Neil's children. There were a lot of truly delightful characters in this book. Jonathan and Ruby especially were such great examples of friends as they were fully there for Caroline when she needed them and took such great care of her.
 
You can't have love without a story, this book teaches. It was a really easy book to read, and I was grateful to have it with me on a flight because it passed the time quickly.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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DNA - did my age in pages - didn't like it. Read up to chapter 3 - didn't like it. ( )

Just kind of bleh. ( )

I really enjoyed this story of Caroline finding who she is and what she wants from life after discovering her husband has had an affair with another man. She also realizes there are several aspects of her life that are not what she thought. She really has a lot to figure out. ( )

Heartwarming with a wonderful cast of vibrant characters, Results May Vary by Bethany Chase is a beautiful journey of self discovery and healing for lead protagonist Caroline Hammond.

Caroline and Adam have been together for sixteen years and their ten year marriage is seemingly perfect. Completely devoted to one another, they are courteous and thoughtful to each other and they seem to know each inside and out. When Caroline discovers that Adam is having an affair with photographer Patrick Timothy, she is beyond stunned. Needing time to process this inexplicable information, Caroline retreats to their home in the Berkshires where her best friend Jonathan and her sister Ruby provide her the support she needs to decide what to do next. Wavering back and forth on whether or not she wants to save her marriage, Caroline tries to make sense of who she is without Adam by her side.

Caroline is shocked, hurt, angry and betrayed after she learns about Adam's affair. Completely blindsided by the fact her husband is attracted to men, she cannot help but wonder how well she really knows him. Of course the biggest question is whether or not their marriage can be saved, and her initial reaction is absolutely not. Once some of the shock and pain subside, Caroline realizes she loves Adam enough to give him a second chance, but she learns he has been keeping another secret from her. This discovery stops their tenuous reconciliation in its tracks since Caroline knows she will never be able to trust him again.

Although Caroline knows her marriage is truly over, she misses being part of a couple and while he hurt her deeply, she continues to miss Adam. She is quite reflective as she looks back on her life with Adam to see if there were hints or clues about him she might have missed or overlooked. She wants to understand why he broke their wedding vows, but Adam is frustratingly unable to provide her with an explanation. As time passes, Caroline begins to recognize the cracks in foundation of their relationship and she views Adam in a much more realistic light.

The secondary cast of characters is well-developed and for the most part, quite appealing. Caroline's sister Ruby is fun-loving and vivacious. Her enthusiasm and zest for life are infectious and she easily convinces Caroline to step of her comfort zone. She has some pretty insightful observations about Adam that help Caroline understand her soon to be ex-husband much better. Caroline's best guy pal Jonathan is larger than life and a straight shooter who tells it like it is. Caroline's co-worker Neil Crenshaw is also absolutely wonderful and he is instrumental in helping her move forward. Despite the fact that Adam cheated on Caroline, he is a surprisingly sympathetic character. He is not completely honest with her until the novel's conclusion and once they have a sincere heart to heart, Caroline is not only able to understand why he was unfaithful, but she is able to begin working on forgiving him.

Results May Vary by Bethany Chase is a captivating novel that is emotional yet gratifying. Although Caroline's husband cheated on her with a man, her reactions are universal as she deals with feelings of inadequacy as she tries to make sense of this shocking discovery. The added burden of trying to understand his attraction to a man adds another layer to the complex and fascinating storyline. All in all, it is an engaging and insightful novel that I highly recommend to readers of contemporary women's fiction. ( )