My Review: Two Kisses for Maddy

Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love

About the Book:

Matt and Liz Logelin were high school sweethearts. After years of long-distance dating, the pair finally settled together in Los Angeles, and they had it all: a perfect marriage, a gorgeous new home, and a baby girl on the way. Liz's pregnancy was rocky, but they welcomed Madeline, beautiful and healthy, into the world on March 24, 2008. 

Just twenty-seven hours later, Liz suffered a pulmonary embolism and died instantly, without ever holding the daughter whose arrival she had so eagerly awaited. Though confronted with devastating grief and the responsibilities of a new and single father, Matt did not surrender to devastation; he chose to keep moving forward-- to make a life for Maddy. 

In this memoir, Matt shares bittersweet and often humorous anecdotes of his courtship and marriage to Liz; of relying on his newborn daughter for the support that she unknowingly provided; and of the extraordinary online community of strangers who have become his friends. In honoring Liz's legacy, heartache has become solace.

My Comments:

When I selected this book I figured it would either be a tear-jerker focusing on the emotional cost of losing  a long-term lover or a comedy of errors in which this guy has to figure out what to do with the business end of a baby, since he has no wife to teach him.  It was neither.  It was much more about Matthew than about Maddy, despite the title, and the writing style did not emotionally engage me.  When I picked up the book, I knew his wife would die, and fully expected to shed a tear or two when it happened, but I didn't.  

The book follows Liz and Matthew through a difficult pregnancy and bedrest all the way to her sudden death. Then we watch Matthew deal with the funeral, the emptiness and bringing Maddy home.  I did feel something for him when he mentioned all the people who would ask him where Maddy's mom was when he had her out--I spent a lot of time alone with my kids and no one ever asked me where their dad was.  As a blogger I enjoyed reading about his blog and how his blog readers became a support system for him--and how he shared their largess with others in more need.

What I did not like was his language.  The book is littered with the "f" word, so much so  that it loses any shock value or emphasis.  I used the search feature on my Kindle and found that word was used over 140 times in the book.  It made perfect sense that he would use it when talking about a high-emotion subject like his wife's death; the problem is that not only was it used then, it was used throughout the book for no apparent reason.  My guess is that other people have made the same complaint about his blog, because he includes a warning page on it now.  

Speaking of his blog, you can see it here.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B-