I did notice that the onscreen bond between Tully and Kate seemed genuine - especially in their teen years - and I appreciated Tully's miscarriage being used in the show to raise awareness, even though the scene where she loses her baby is a bit traumatizing. To me, it seemed like the Netflix adaptation was written as a 'choose your own adventure' version of the novel, where the wrong adventure was chosen for every character. The show was very loosely based on the book, and didn't come close to doing the story justice. Not to mention, Tully's whole relationship with Max is a stretch and a half. M would sneak around with some guy from church or that Kate would be flirting via email with a PTA dad. These relationships were unbreakable, loving, and true in the book, and it makes no sense at all that Mrs. I felt similarly with the infidelity in Kate's parents' marriage. For instance, what in the hell did they do to Johnny Ryan and Kate Mularkey's beautiful marriage and love story? In the book, their partnership is strong and comes from a place of deep respect for each other. The lighting - come on Tully, no one has patio lights that strong - paired with cheap images of the 'sky' and the 'fireflies' had me rolling my eyes and cringing at times.īut my real beef with the Netflix series is that the extra onscreen drama added in didn't align with the characters and their personalities at all. Lets start with the superficial: I almost didn't finish the series because the first few episodes were so corny.

Sadly, all of these wonderful aspects of the book did not come together on screen for me, and my feelings while watching the recent Netflix adaptation ranged from confusion over events that didn't happen in the books to outright anger at how some of the most important relationships in the story were depicted. I felt genuinely attached to each and every one of the characters and the role they played in bringing the story together.

This story captured my heart and brought me along for the wild ride that is the life of 'TullyandKate.' I couldn't put the book down, even when my laughter turned into tears and back to laughter again. Like any good writer, she makes you feel like you're right there in the story, seeing everything she's painting out in words in vivid color rather than black and white on a page, and her 2008 novel Firefly Lane is no different. Kristin Hannah is a spectacular author - I'd even say she's my favorite due to the sheer number of her novels I've read and recommended to others.

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