The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion

The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion

Published Date: May 20, 2016

Printed in the United States by St. Martin's Press

Book Jacket description:

"Two Decades ago, Adam Sharp's piano playing led him into a passionate relationship with Angelina Brown, an intelligent and strong-willed actress. They had a chance at something more- but Adam didn't take it.

Now Adam has the life he's planned for himself. He's happy with his partner Claire, he excels in music trivia at quiz night at the local pub, he looks after his mother, and he does the occasional consulting job in IT. But he can never quite shake off his nostalgia for what might have been.

And then, out of nowhere, from the other side of the world, Angelina gets in touch. What does she want? Does Adam dare to live dangerously? 

Set to the soundtrack of our lives, The Best of Adam Sharp follows along with emotion and humor as one man looks back on his past and decides if having a second chance is worth the risk."

Music- the lifeline of my life, is also the life line of Adam Sharp's life. The day that he met Angelina Brown, soap actress, the love of his life, he was playing Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison at Shanksy's bar in Melbourne, Australia.

Angelina was strong-willed, she was already married, the night at the bar she and her husband were fighting, she asked Adam if she could sing with him. She asked him if he knew, Because of the Night by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen, he did. She fell in love with Adam when she was only supposed to be having a fling, just as he did her. They were perfect for each other.

Graeme Simsion does a fabulous job of feeding the feeling of forbidden love that can't be controlled and can't be squelched. After Adams' consulting job ends in Melbourne he would be moving on to New Zealand and then back to London. He and Angelina have only that time to decide whether they continue together and she divorce her husband or call it quits from their affair... What will they do?

I thoroughly enjoyed the character development that happens in the story. We learn so much about Angelina and Adam very quickly, just as fast as their relationship starts coalescing round each other. 

Twenty years later, Adam gets an email from Angelina in the middle of the night. He is happy in his no-challenging relationship with Claire, whom he has been living with for years. I get really annoyed by the boredom of his and Claire's relationship, to me, it is a scheduled, loveless, non-energy charged cohabitation.  Maybe this is why after that initial email from Angelina, Adam answers with a few words and starts onto an "emotional affair".

When Angelina asks him to holiday with she and her husband Charlie, I am flummoxed that he accepts. What in the world was he thinking?

Then the story gets strange in such a confusing wonderful way. Will Angelina and Adam get back together? Will she let go of Adam for good or choose Charlie again?  You will have to read the story to find out...

I enjoyed the story so much I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. :)

Have you read The Best of Adam Sharp? What did you think of it?