I came for the marriage-in-trouble trope. I stayed for the confusion and then the slight redemption at the end.

Here’s the thing: a good married couple falling apart? Chef’s kiss. That’s the premise that hooked me. Cara Bastone’s No Matter What checks that box on paper. But somewhere between the first page and the 15% mark, I hit a wall. The miscommunication is thick. Like, you could cut it with a knife and serve it for dinner. And I don’t mean in a slow-burn, delicious way, I mean in a “did these two people actually ever talk” kind of way.

The husband in particular frustrated me. Not in a “wow, he’s a complex flawed character” way, but in a “man, just TALK to your WIFE” way. It took me forever to understand what was actually happening between them because nobody seemed willing to have an actual conversation until, well, they had to.

Things got better around 65%. The miscommunication finally broke and I could actually follow what was happening. And then, this is the part that bumped my rating up. Bastone gave us a real glimpse of what came after. Not a “and they lived happily ever after” fade-to-black. An actual look at them rebuilding. That epilogue felt earned.

Here’s where I got weird about the book. The writing itself had moments that threw me. There were sentences where past and present tense were just chilling together. At first I thought it was me. Then I read a paragraph out loud to Anthony and was like, “This is not normal, right?” He confirmed. It’s not normal. Some of those switches are jarring enough that they pulled me out of the story. I don’t know if this is an editing thing or an intentional choice, but either way, it bugged me.

No Matter What delivers on its premise, a marriage under real strain, but it takes its time getting you there and the journey is confusing. The payoff at the end is solid. The technical stuff with the tenses? That’s the real letdown. Worth reading if you’re into marriage drama and can tolerate some early miscommunication fog, but it’s not a home run.