Beginnings by Fingersmith

Bryan Adams will take us back to the ”Summer of ’69” and in “Beginnings” Fingersmith will let us take a peek at the summer of 1974. You can listen to the tune or read the story - either way it rocks!

The hot, sticky summer of 1974 was the summer that the six-year-old Lou was struck to the ground by Ash - the new girl on the block. This happened when Ash fell from a tree as Lou walks by heading her mothers call to come in for her tea! This was the beginning of a friendship that lasted all summer, but ended abruptly when Lou’s mother chose to leave her ever absent, non-caring husband and moving herself and the kids to a new town – guess who was unhappy with that move!

Move fast forward 10 years and see Lou falling of a stage - while doing a drunken version of “Waterloo” (Karaoke) – and landing on top of a table full of empty glasses, surrounded by amorous young men, ready for a woman to drop into their lives. And the cause? A pair of pale blue eyes – guess who they belong to!

After the surprise reunion the girls take to each other like the friends they used to be, but – as you might have guessed – things have changed; the kids have grown and new confusing feelings surface. Sarah proves to be the one who can put at least some of those raging hormones to a good use – no I’m not confusing the names here! Things will get even more confused as the girls all battle with their feelings and the courage to own up to how they feel. Before the teenagers can sort out their feelings Lou’s mother decides to …. move again – gee can’t she just stay put for once!

Take a deep breath and a giant leap into maturity and visit with Lou and Ash as they meet again in the cause of a dramatic criminal investigation that mix with family history. Perhaps the third time’s the charm ?

This is a story spanning almost half a lifetime from childhood, through teenage years and further on to a time when girls are no longer girls but women of maturity. Even if it’s a rather long story - 206 pages if you go by the count on The Athenaeum - we are only treated to the bit’s and pieces of the lives of Lou and Ash when they happen to get in touch with each other.

“Beginnings” is really three separate stories in a tight woven series. The story that I like the best is the third and last one as this seems the most complete both in the storyline, in the interactions between the protagonists and in the ease of writing. The story as a whole holds a little for every reader though both those who favour the tales of the first teenage love, the soul mate theme, witty moments, spicy encounters or the usual angsty misunderstandings between those that we – the readers – deem to be right for each other.

All in all I’ll say that this is perhaps not Fingersmiths best on-line story as I’m particularly fond of “Once”, but it’s still an entertaining read, romantic and catching at places and well worth a read.