...Bookfanatic

'Rattlesnake' was another awesome buddy read with my lovely friends Christelle, Josy and Sheziss over on GR. It was also an excise in individuality. It seems that this one was split down the middle in terms of liking it. For two of us it was a definite hit for the other two sadly a miss. But regardless of this the buddy read was once again a fun way to enjoy this story. 

This was a prime example of something I believe with all my heart you can have the exact same book with all the same words and wrapped up in the same pretty pictures and yet no two people will ever read the same story. Does it make one person wrong and the other person right? Hardly, it makes them two different people with different points of view based on their life experiences, beliefs and values and a host of other factors that went into making them who they are. So I'm going to talk about the story that I read and you'll just have to read my friends reviews to find out about the book that they read.

'Rattlesnake' is the story of two men both damaged by life in very different ways. Jimmy has gone through life constantly on the move. He's never known what it's like to have a real family one that loves and values him and for the most part his sense of self esteem is non-existent. This has led him to a life on the road where he's always moving on because he wants to see what's around the next bend. To me it felt like he was looking for a place to belong...looking for a home. But sadly he'd been looking for so long that when he finally found it, he didn't recognize what he'd found it took time and a good amount of patience and knowing when not to give up on Shane's part.

Now Shane was basically the total opposite he had a home. A really good one and he knew it and he treasured it. He was surrounded by a family that loved him so much he was probably at risk of smothering from it. Shane was damaged both physically and emotionally as the result of a really bad car accident. His world changed dramatically and things he wanted were no longer possible. But Shane still had a big heart and a lot of love to give he just needed the right person to give it to.

So in the bigger picture, for me, it came down to Jimmy needing a second change at having a home and being loved and Shane needing to share that abundance of love he had and to be someone's home because a home isn't a building or a place it's the people that live there. 

What draws these two men together is a dead man and a piece of paper. Fate is a fickle thing and this story is such a rich and colorful illustration of that fact. It's about the path taken and I found myself wondering so many thing. Things like what if Jimmy hadn't found that letter in his car? Would he and Shane have met? What if he'd given Shane the letter sooner? What if...what if...what if...life is full of what ifs but like this story at the end of it all what really mattered was...what is and what was. 

'Rattlesnake' was a sweet  story about two men getting a second chance at love and while neither of them was truly old, Jimmy was 43 and Shane was just a bit younger, they were both mature enough and at a point in their lives where knowing what they wanted and recognizing that it was standing right in front of them shouldn't have been something that took prolonged amounts of time to figure out which was why the fact that some things did seem to happen quickly at the end didn't bother me because I just feel like there comes a point in a persons life that if you don't know what it is you want and can't recognize that you've finally found it than all the chances in the world aren't going to help you or save you.

So that was the copy of 'Rattlesnake' that I read. Was my copy right or someone else's? Neither there is no right or wrong in this case there's just different and I like different because it allows us all to be ourselves. For me 'Rattlesnake' was a fun, sweet story about second chances and finding love and I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to read a story that they can just sink into and enjoy for a while.