Book Details:
Book Title: A Dress the Color of the Moon by Jennifer Irwin
Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 360 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction
Publisher: Glass Spider Publishing
Release date: October 30, 2021
Content Rating: PG-13 +M: Though this book deals with sexual addiction, it does not contained explicit sex scenes and the language is tame. The book's focus is on the protagonist's path toward recovery from an addiction.
Book Description:
Prudence Aldrich is a sex addict. Five weeks ago, she checked into the Serenity Hills rehab center to prevent that addiction from ruining every important relationship in her life. Now Prue must face the trail of destruction she left behind, including mending the broken bond with her teenage son, finalizing the divorce from her husband, Nick, and using a newly learned set of skills to ward off her insatiable cravings for male attention-a compulsion that puts her friendship with lifelong pal Lily to the test.
Adding ever further complications to the hurdles in her path is the arrival into town of Alistair Prescott, her in-rehab romantic obsession, and the one person in the world most capable of throwing Prue off her recovery. Meanwhile, Serenity Hills counselor Mike Sullivan is undergoing a crisis of his own-one that will drive him to the rediscovery of a lifelong passion . . . and causing him to cross paths again with Prue, his former patient.
A Dress the Color of the Moon tracks the rocky and sometimes disastrous path to recovery-a recovery that will require Prudence and her friends to face down the demons of their pasts while learning to accept the fearful uncertainty that comes with living life on your own two feet.
A Dress The Color Of The Moon is the second of two novels about Prudence Aldrich's sex addiction and recovery. I haven't yet read the first book, but found that didn't detract from my enjoyment of A Dress The Color Of The Moon. There are a few references to earlier events, but on the whole this is a self contained story. The novel starts when Prudence is a resident at an addiction recovery clinic called Serenity Hills where she is learning how to live without triggering her addiction. Unfortunately, she develops an attraction to her counsellor, Mike, who secretly has problems enough of his own. I was interested that a lot of what Prudence struggles with didn't actually seem to be an addiction to sex per se, but to the male validation that intercourse provided. She needed to know that she was wanted physically because her low self esteem did not allow her to feel comfortable simply as herself. Prudence also thinks about starting a relationship with a fellow addict, Alistair, a rich man who I didn't think was taking the recovery process seriously enough for it to work. I couldn't understand why Prudence was attracted to him - other than his bank account - because he came across as a selfish person. Prudence did tend to surround herself with similar types of people though. Her relationship with her best friend, Lily, is also complicated. I thought Lily took a lot of liberties that would have upset me so I could quite understand when Prudence had a moment of indiscreet revenge. I thought that A Dress The Color Of The Moon was as much about navigating interpersonal relationships as it was about recovery from addiction. I didn't like many of the characters ' personalities, but I was quite gripped by this novel. Prudence especially is an unpredictable person and sadly self destructive so it was difficult to anticipate just what kind of a mess she would get herself into next. I did think A Dress The Color Of The Moon got a bit too maudlin and mawkish towards the end, but overall I enjoyed reading this novel.
Meet the Author:
Jennifer Irwin’s debut novel, A Dress the Color of the Sky, was published in 2017 and has received rave reviews, won seven book awards, and was optioned for a feature film. Jennifer’s short stories have appeared in numerous literary publications including California’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction. Jennifer is represented by Prentis Literary and currently resides in Los Angeles.
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