TRULY

TRULY                                                     RUTHIE KNOX
Posted:  Aug. 21, 2014

May Fredericks hates New York. Which is fair enough, since New York seems to hate her back. Just weeks after moving from Wisconsin to Manhattan, she receives the world's worst marriage proposal, stabs her boyfriend with a shrimp fork in a very public venue, and accidentally becomes notorious. And that’s before she gets mugged.

At her wit's end, May washes up at a Packers bar in Greenwich Village, where she meets a surly, unhelpful guy who hates her shoes and calls her ex a douche.

His name is Ben. He used to be a chef. Now he's a rooftop beekeeper with anger management issues. She wouldn't even like him, but he reminds her of home … and he knows where to find all the best food in the Village.

She makes him laugh. He buys her tacos and cowboy boots. The longer they’re stuck together, the better May and Ben get along … and the harder they fall. TRULY is a quirky, modern New York love story unlike any you've read before.
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About the Serialization
TRULY, the first novel in Ruthie Knox’s forthcoming New York Series, will be serialized in its entirety on Wattpad. Look for chapters every Monday from September 3 through November 4! Once completed, the full Wattpad version of TRULY will be pulled, so be sure to read it while it's still available!
TRULY will be published by Loveswept/Random House in Fall 2014. Two sequels — MADLY and COMPLETELY — will follow.

MY REVIEW:

     This was a very fun and interesting story.  The story of a very tall 5’ 11 ¾”, May Fredrick’s, from Manetowoc, Wisconsin.  Who is, who she is.  She has never felt feminine especially compared to her sister Allie who was tiny and petite like her mother.  And the two together were a nightmare.

     While working for the Green Bay Packers she meets their second string quarterback who is amazed how much she knows about the Packers.  They have been dating for 4 years and he gets traded to N.Y. Jets.  So, they had been living apart for a while.  They were at an event when Dan was going to ask her to officially marry him but his proposal was awful.  He called her plain, pure, and an innocent girl wearing no makeup, no fancy anything when she like now, (but she had dressed for her.) To make it worse he says the worse things by going on to say, that the coach told him she’s a keeper that she will help keep his head on straight but he didn’t stop there.  In her head she was scream for him to or he would ruin what they had, but he didn’t he goes on, and this is where the shrimp fork comes into play, he says, “I left all my old ways behind, I quit thinking about sex and started focusing on the one thing that matters to me the most-FOOTBALL!”

     That was the end she stabbed his hand with a shrimp fork.  They rushed them off the stage into a car and take them to his apartment where all he keep saying is I am so sorry I screwed that whole thing up my manager will fix this don’t worry.  She said nothing, she just shook her head because there was nothing that could be done he had done it all.  Now she was just planning her escape.  Dan wasn’t mad at her at all but she was it was over.  She waited until he had to go to the meeting at the headquarters with the team.  She wrote him a note and left it on the fridge saying it was over.  Then she proceeded to get rob by a guy she thought was security that was hired because of all the photographers.  Not the guy just wanted her purse.  All she had was $5.00 and a metro pass.

     May had only been in the city for 6 weeks and it wasn’t normally in NY it was in New Jersey where Dan had a home in fact this was the first time to his apartment.  After walking aimlessly she ends up in front of a bar that is known to be a Packer’s fan hang out.  Being the daydreamer that she is she got into her head with the thought that she would get all this help by all her fellows men to get home.  Not!  She does finally meet although begrudgingly Ben Hausman, 32, a Chef by trade but disgruntled, currently, a peaceful beekeeper, gardener, & at home creative Chef.  He’s divorced from Sandy which he hates with a passion.  He is surly and gruff most of the time or at least until he meets May.

     From the get go she disarms him.  By most standards she, May, is not beautiful but her exuberance brings out a beauty that he just wants to be near.  What really attracted him to her was her sultry laugh.  His friend Connor was leaving the bar and stopped to speak to her and gets this laugh to come out of her but at the time he doesn’t know it’s her.  He moves toward the bar to see Connor climbing the stairs and May’s smile fading and no one else around so he knows it was her laughing.  He remembers what Connor had said about May earlier being someone in need of comfort and friendship that she looked lost.  He discounting it and Connor asking about his humanity and his anger.  Maybe he could practice both on May and buy her a drink or two and listen to her woes.  Maybe even make her laugh that great laugh…

     I loved this story because the author took great care to give these characters their own individual insecurities to deal with one never over powering the others.  Yet, giving great depth of pain and anguish to each.

     May, with her lack of acceptance even of herself due to what she was told by her tiny petite mother all her life, that she was basically an Amazon and overweight, and she would be lucky to get any boy/man to notice her let alone marry her. Her mother dictated her whole life and it showed in her home, her lack of self-care in fashion, and sticking with a man that she only felt comfortable with.  Not to mention telling her to settle because what could she get if she gave up a Green Bay Packer Player, she’s not that great, basically.

     Ben, having his anger issues yet being the kindest and gentlest man May had ever known all at the same time.  She could argue and fight and yet still have the best loving of her life with him.  His adventure he showed her in the belly of New York was awesome.  In her four days in NY with Ben she figures out she is nothing like she was led to believe.  Ben empowers her to find her voice, not always liking it because she calls him on a few things. 

     I give this 5 stars.  You will love this it has tenderness, pain, and humor.  Provided by Net Galley.

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