What do you think?
Rate this book
We've Come Undone
We've Come Undone traces the intimate landscape of two contemporary marriages from their idealistic, yet misguided beginnings. Each couple mistakenly believe their happily ever after will come without really knowing who've they've married. What begins as self-deception quickly morphs into deception on a larger scale. At its heart, this story is about the choices we make, how they shape our lives, and how resilience propels us toward reclaiming the lost parts of ourselves.
487 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 20, 2022
3 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Jan Marin Tramontano
5 books17 followersJan Marin Tramontano is a poet and novelist. She wrote three poetry chapbooks, Woman Sitting in a Café and other poems of Paris, Floating Islands: New and Collected Poems, and Paternal Nocturne.
We've Come Undone reprinted in 2022 after its debut publication as What Love Becomes, is a novel about the choices we make, how they shape our lives, and how our innate resilience propels us toward reclaiming the lost parts of ourselves. Two stories from it have been published (Adelaide Literary Magazine and AOIS21). Standing on the Corner of Lost and Found, her debut novel, is a story about broken hearts and fragile dreams repaired through the indelible ties of friendship and family.
Her poems appear in her poetry collective’s anthology, Java Wednesdays and the Hudson Valley Writers Guild's, Peer Glass Review. She’s had poems, stories, and book reviews published in numerous literary journals, magazines, and newspapers such as Poets Canvas, Up the River, Chronogram, Women’s Synergy, Knock, The DuPage Valley Review, and Moms Literary Review. In addition, her poems have won several poetry contests.
She belongs to the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and served on the board, as program chair and contest administrator . A longtime New Yorker, she now resides with her husband in Saratoga Springs after several years in Naples, Florida.
We've Come Undone reprinted in 2022 after its debut publication as What Love Becomes, is a novel about the choices we make, how they shape our lives, and how our innate resilience propels us toward reclaiming the lost parts of ourselves. Two stories from it have been published (Adelaide Literary Magazine and AOIS21). Standing on the Corner of Lost and Found, her debut novel, is a story about broken hearts and fragile dreams repaired through the indelible ties of friendship and family.
Her poems appear in her poetry collective’s anthology, Java Wednesdays and the Hudson Valley Writers Guild's, Peer Glass Review. She’s had poems, stories, and book reviews published in numerous literary journals, magazines, and newspapers such as Poets Canvas, Up the River, Chronogram, Women’s Synergy, Knock, The DuPage Valley Review, and Moms Literary Review. In addition, her poems have won several poetry contests.
She belongs to the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and served on the board, as program chair and contest administrator . A longtime New Yorker, she now resides with her husband in Saratoga Springs after several years in Naples, Florida.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 3, 2019
With complicated lives and even more complicated internal turmoil, couples come together and fall apart and come together again. The intricacy of familial and personal baggage play out in this novel written by a previously local author to our area.
What it does best is showcase the perspective of people going through hell that have to keep going. Feeling the thoughts and emotions as Denny and Willow and Blake and Jillian marry and struggle then find another is part of the cracking of relationships that most people experience to some capacity, but then to add in the complications of war or passions is then the driver for whether they can continue to support one another or not. What do you give up to be with a person? What can one person handle before they must give up themselves?
Those are all the questions that get answered in this contemporary story of two couples.
Blog Post here
What it does best is showcase the perspective of people going through hell that have to keep going. Feeling the thoughts and emotions as Denny and Willow and Blake and Jillian marry and struggle then find another is part of the cracking of relationships that most people experience to some capacity, but then to add in the complications of war or passions is then the driver for whether they can continue to support one another or not. What do you give up to be with a person? What can one person handle before they must give up themselves?
Those are all the questions that get answered in this contemporary story of two couples.
Blog Post here
February 6, 2023
It’s not very often that I wish I knew how to speed read but when I started reading We’ve Come Undone by Jan Marin Tramontano that is exactly what I wanted to do.
In We’ve Come Undone Tramontano breaks the story up into three parts starting with the families until there is an accident then she sends the reader back into the lives of the characters providing us with the story as it unfolded and how they got there then she returns to the present and the characters as they deal with the aftermath of the accident.
In We’ve Come Undone readers are introduced to two couples, Willow and Denny and Jillian and Blake. Both couples have been married for years however neither couple are happily married. Willow is a librarian at the high school where Blake is the principal…it is there during little get togethers that they fall in love. Willow’s husband Denny is a war vet dealing with demons that he cannot shake, luckily he is a skilled carpenter and that helps keep him going. Blake’s wife Jillian is a dancer that followed her dream but was unable to fulfill it and is not capable of getting past that failure. Sadly Blake and Jillian have a daughter Chelsea who is in high school and luckily has a great relationship with her father….and she adores the librarian Willow.
The day of the accident Willow and Blake were going to their spouses to tell them they were leaving them and that their marriages are over. Blake was able to go home and talk to Jillian but Willow was involved in a very bad accident when her car went through a red light and she was hit. Willow was put into a medical coma so that her body could have time to recover after having surgery.
In the second part of the story Tramontano takes the readers back a few years before the affair and accident to give the readers an idea of how the affair unfolded. Readers get to see the struggles the couples went through and how Willow and Blake fell out of love with their partners and in love with each other.
In We’ve Come Undone readers are also introduced to Lily who is a reporter / journalist who has struggles of her own. In the beginning Lily is at the scene of the accident and feels a pull to investigate. This then finds her at the hospital where she meets Denny as well as Willow’s sister Autumn. Readers are also given Lily’s back story before the accident in the second part of the story.
There is a lot of drama, sadness, loss, love, new beginnings, closures and acceptance within We’ve Come Undone. Readers will fall in love with the story and the people and will feel compel to root for certain people. And the way that Tramontano outlined the story breaking it up really keeps the reader on track. You will find yourself thoroughly impacted by the people and you will want to rush through it to get to the end…..I highly recommend that you don’t. Take your time, get to know the characters, and enjoy every part of their journey.
In We’ve Come Undone Tramontano breaks the story up into three parts starting with the families until there is an accident then she sends the reader back into the lives of the characters providing us with the story as it unfolded and how they got there then she returns to the present and the characters as they deal with the aftermath of the accident.
In We’ve Come Undone readers are introduced to two couples, Willow and Denny and Jillian and Blake. Both couples have been married for years however neither couple are happily married. Willow is a librarian at the high school where Blake is the principal…it is there during little get togethers that they fall in love. Willow’s husband Denny is a war vet dealing with demons that he cannot shake, luckily he is a skilled carpenter and that helps keep him going. Blake’s wife Jillian is a dancer that followed her dream but was unable to fulfill it and is not capable of getting past that failure. Sadly Blake and Jillian have a daughter Chelsea who is in high school and luckily has a great relationship with her father….and she adores the librarian Willow.
The day of the accident Willow and Blake were going to their spouses to tell them they were leaving them and that their marriages are over. Blake was able to go home and talk to Jillian but Willow was involved in a very bad accident when her car went through a red light and she was hit. Willow was put into a medical coma so that her body could have time to recover after having surgery.
In the second part of the story Tramontano takes the readers back a few years before the affair and accident to give the readers an idea of how the affair unfolded. Readers get to see the struggles the couples went through and how Willow and Blake fell out of love with their partners and in love with each other.
In We’ve Come Undone readers are also introduced to Lily who is a reporter / journalist who has struggles of her own. In the beginning Lily is at the scene of the accident and feels a pull to investigate. This then finds her at the hospital where she meets Denny as well as Willow’s sister Autumn. Readers are also given Lily’s back story before the accident in the second part of the story.
There is a lot of drama, sadness, loss, love, new beginnings, closures and acceptance within We’ve Come Undone. Readers will fall in love with the story and the people and will feel compel to root for certain people. And the way that Tramontano outlined the story breaking it up really keeps the reader on track. You will find yourself thoroughly impacted by the people and you will want to rush through it to get to the end…..I highly recommend that you don’t. Take your time, get to know the characters, and enjoy every part of their journey.
April 4, 2019
What Love Becomes is spellbinding. I couldn't put it down. Brilliant character development. The
underlying psychology is flawless and unstintingly thorough, which I appreciate. These people are so real, their intertwinings are utterly convincing, their connections plausible. Puts me in mind of Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing.
Once Tramantano has captivated you with her story telling, she compels you to pay attention to humanity's foibles. Her marvelous writing is stunningly insightful. Perceptive little nuggets are subtly seeded throughout. Wonderfully empathetic. Satisfying, entertaining, compelling. I ate it up in one bite. A goooood read.
underlying psychology is flawless and unstintingly thorough, which I appreciate. These people are so real, their intertwinings are utterly convincing, their connections plausible. Puts me in mind of Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing.
Once Tramantano has captivated you with her story telling, she compels you to pay attention to humanity's foibles. Her marvelous writing is stunningly insightful. Perceptive little nuggets are subtly seeded throughout. Wonderfully empathetic. Satisfying, entertaining, compelling. I ate it up in one bite. A goooood read.
January 13, 2020
This is certainly an absorbing book that pulls you in emotionally. It's centered around three couples who could be any of us in our ordinary lives, showing how the choices they make early on play out over time. The author has done a good job at creating very realistic characters and situations and the writing flows well. My only quibble is the time jumping in the middle section among the various characters' back stories which made it hard for me to follow what was happening to who and when (although in the end it didn't matter).
May 2, 2019
I could not put this book down (as you can see, I read it in four days)! A beautiful, detailed exploration of love, marriage, and family, and how each is affected by trauma, loss, and regret. The characters in these interwoven stories are all deeply flawed and trapped in unhappy marriages, yet somehow the story manages to be uplifting.
May 19, 2019
Loved this book. An intriguing story of the lives of two couples and what becomes of their once happy and loving relationships. Interesting that the partner in each who was the least interested in the marriage tried the hardest in the end!
November 4, 2020
A Must Read, Could Not Put it Down
As an escapist reader who is reluctant to read anything based on real life, I could not put this down. The characters were so well developed and relatable, I just had to know how it all turned out. Thoroughly researched, I learned so much about topics from gulf war syndrome to ballet! Please give this story about love and marriage a chance, you will not walk away with out important insight into what love becomes.
As an escapist reader who is reluctant to read anything based on real life, I could not put this down. The characters were so well developed and relatable, I just had to know how it all turned out. Thoroughly researched, I learned so much about topics from gulf war syndrome to ballet! Please give this story about love and marriage a chance, you will not walk away with out important insight into what love becomes.
April 30, 2022
It was interesting reading this book as it was set near where I live. The characters, flawed as they all are, still kept me interested. Felt a bit like I was reading the extended novelized version of Daughtry’s song “No Surprise.”
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews