Uninspired and sexist

The story opens up with a couple who think very highly of themselves "some things are meant to be and others aren't" but their relationship is clearly very strained and problematic.

The wife cares about social issues only as much as they can personally affect her (sympathy for the homeless to the point where she'll give them pitying looks and feel worried it'll happen to her, impulse buying a cute puppy that she doesn't end up caring for...) The husband is abusive (they both hit each other but he kicks the dog across the room) and gaslights his wife, he's short tempered but also has a savior complex that he needs to protect his damsel-in-distress wife.

They're both sexist caricatures of a couple that the author intends for you to root for but aren't sympathetic characters at all. Despite that I was hoping the story was deeper and contained a narrative that critiqued that this abusive relationship is normalized and romanticized, but then the wife thinks "How many little girls (died here) who'd never see their sweet sixteen or little boys who'd never grow up to be doctors or lawyers" and I gave up and returned to book. It's not worth your time or money.

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