Review: Completely by Ruthie Knox

☆☆➹⁀☆4 stars☆➹⁀☆☆

 

What it’s about:

Everest. If they can make it there, they can make it anywhere. Maybe even New York, where Ruthie Knox takes her charming rom-com style to new heights.

Beneath her whole “classic English beauty” appearance is an indomitable spirit that has turned Rosemary Chamberlain into something of a celebrity mountain climber. But after an Everest excursion takes a deadly turn, Rosemary is rescued by her quick-thinking guide, New York native Kal Beckett. Rosemary’s brush with death brings out a primal need to celebrate life—and inspires a night of steamy sex with the rather gorgeous man who saved her.

The son of a famous female climber with a scandalous past, Kal Beckett is still trying to find himself. In the Zen state of mind where Kal spends most of his time, anything can happen—like making love to a fascinating stranger and setting off across the world with her the next morning. But as their lives collide in the whirlwind of passion that is New York City, the real adventure is clearly just beginning.

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My Thoughts:

 

Although Completely by Ruthie Knox is billed as a romance, it is more of a work of women’s literature. There is a romance between the main characters, Kal and Rosemary, however, it is secondary to the other major events and issues in their lives.

Divorced and estranged from her daughter, Rosemary is focused on her childhood dream of being a mountaineer. The beautiful Brit meets Kal at base camp on Mount Everest. Kal is the ruggedly handsome, Sherpa Ice Doctor—his role is to “diagnose” the condition of the ice for the climbers. Culturally, Kal and Rosemary are miles apart, but an avalanche literally throws them into each other’s arms.

These two characters are very interesting. They are both outwardly strong and calm, but they are emotionally fragile beings. I loved the messages Ms. Knox conveys through her development of these two characters. Kal and Rosemary are both lost and looking for purpose. Rosemary spent years feeling like nothing. She was unappreciated by her husband and daughter, and she was made to feel that she was loved only when she made the proper decisions. Kal spent years being abused by his father, and watching his father beat his mother. He also spent his adulthood wondering if the stories of his mother’s involvement in his father’s death were true. Their issues are quite different, but they both on Mount Everest avoiding their issues and hiding from life instead of living it.

Rosemary and Kal are thrown together multiple times as they recover from shock and reenter life. They end up taking care of one another. While I usually abhor “insta-love” stories, I can accept the all-too-quick use of the term love between Kal and Rosemary given the life-changing catastrophe they experienced together. Living through an avalanche, would definitely make me appreciate the fragility of my life and heighten my awareness of the limited time we have to seize the day.

I appreciated that both Kal and Rosemary question their fit in each other’s life—even more so after their declaration of love. They are both struggling with what they want to do with the rest of their lives, and they are trying to envision how they might accomplish anything while being tethered in a relationship. Kal’s mother, the infamous Yangchen Beckett, is the catalyst for change in both Kal and Rosemary. The two find new inspiration for moving forward individually, and they find that they can love and be loved completely if they live by their own rules.

The moral of this story is don’t compromise on finding fulfillment in your life in order to have love…find a partner who will love you completely while you are following your dream.   Think outside the box, and love outside the box.