Leaving Haven

Leaving Haven
by Kathleen McCleary
Published by William Morrow
352 pages
Genre: women's fiction
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
5 / 5


Oh, faithful readers. I really liked this book, and I'm still a bit annoyed that it ended.

The titular Haven in question is a newborn infant whose parentage is somewhat convoluted. His forty-year-old gestational carrier is Georgia, who has a teenage daughter with her chef husband John. Georgia and John always wanted more children, but years of lost pregnancies and failed in vitro procedures left her ready to forsake another attempt. Ready, but not quite willing. When Georgia muses out loud to best friend Alice about getting a donor egg from Georgia's younger sister, Alice volunteers. She and her husband Duncan have a daughter the same age as Georgia and John's, and the two women are best friends. Why not donate an egg?

If only it were that simple.

Just a couple of months before giving birth, Georgia discovers catastrophic news that careens her marriage, her friendship, and potentially her pregnancy into an abyss of agony and uncertainty.

Told from the perspectives of both Georgia and Alice, we get to know the two women and their families. We empathize with Georgia's lost pregnancies and her frustration and grief over not getting pregnant a second time. We hurt with her, just as we both adore and are vexed by her two sisters. We feel her love and passion for her husband, even if he may not be all that he appears. When Georgia suspects him of being unfaithful with a cook at his restaurant, we hold our breath, hoping it isn't true. Georgia deserves better than a husband who is not fully devoted to her.

Alice, too, has a husband whom we suspect is not as good as she deserves. Duncan is focused on his job, almost to the exclusivity of his family. He is a creature of habit, steady and predictable. After a decade and a half of marriage, we feel Alice's restlessness, even if she is desperate to create the stability she lacked as a child. Duncan is a good man, but he's boring. And he lacks passionate interest in his wife. We don't suspect his fidelity to her, but there are different sorts of fidelity, aren't there? Is emotional infidelity any better than sexual?

When the breach occurs between Alice and Georgia, Kathleen McCleary expertly steers us down the middle. She does not choose side and she demands that we do not either. Each woman has a reason for her actions, and rather than align ourselves with one over the other, we instead should hope that they reclaim their friendship. Even more than their marriages, their relationship with each other is the true emotional source for this novel. One of my favorite passages is when Georgia acknowledges that the loss of her friendship with Alice hurts more than any failings in her marriage.

At first, though, I thought the ending of the book pointed to McCleary picking a side. But after I thought about it, I realized that she really didn't. She ended it as it needs to end, even though I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the characters.

There are moments of humor sprinkled throughout, which is excellent planning by McCleary. Things get emotionally fraught, so having those light-hearted episodes grounds us in how real this situation is. Even Georgia's sisters, who could have been stock characters, are realistically drawn. We understand their jealousies and sympathies.

Is this a perfect book? No. Some of the character motivations do not ring true, and one of the husbands is so mysterious that his behavior is unaccounted for. That made me  question him more, which is not the direction the story should take. Our attention must be focused squarely on Georgia and Alice. One of the subplots, involving Georgia and Alice's daughters, is meant to parallel their mothers' relationship, replete with betrayals and emotional pain. The denouement of their relationship makes us wonder if the same will happen between Georgia and Alice.

Read this one, then come back and discuss it with me in the comments. Did you take a side? Whose?

Covet

Covet
by Tracey Garvis Graves
Published by Penguin Group / Dutton Adult
326 pages
Genre: women's literature
Thanks to NetGalley for the preview
4 / 5



When I read On the Island, I fell in love with the way Tracy Garvis Graves writes. So I have been waiting to read her next endeavor, hoping that she would not suffer a sophomore slump.

Crisis averted.

While Covet may not have the depth and emotional appeal of On the Island, it nonetheless is an interesting, engrossing read.

It cannot be easy to write about the economy, if for no other reason than "economic downtown" and "riveting reading" seem somewhat like an oxymoron. But Graves does just that. Chris Canton lost his job over a year ago, and it took him twelve months to find a new one. During that time, his marriage to Claire suffered, despite their love for each other and the love they share for their children. Chris did what husbands do: he retreated, his focus solely on getting a job. Claire, meanwhile, was expected to maintain the family and the marriage, all by herself.

When we meet them, Chris has been with his new job for several months. It requires near constant travel from him, which leaves Claire not just emotionally alone but physically as well. When she is pulled over for a busted tail light and has an immediate attraction to the hot cop about to ticket her, we sympathize. She receives no affection from her husband, so of course she is wanting.

As Claire's friendship with Daniel Rush, the hot cop, takes off, her marriage remains stagnant. We know Chris loves her and misses her, and we know that he wants to reestablish their marriage, but he has no idea how lonely she is. Daniel, for his part, is viscerally attracted to Claire. Not only does she resemble his ex-wife, she also is interesting and comforting. He likes her, and she begins to like him. But Claire can't have both men. At some point, she will need to choose.

Graves peppers her story with minor characters whose lives are as fractured as Chris and Claire's. Two sets of neighbors are threatened by addiction, and a third struggles with infertility. When you are under assault by a fragile economy, you seek control and comfort over something, whether booze or pregnancy or a new friendship.

One of the better things Graves accomplishes here is that she makes us sympathize with Claire, Chris, and Daniel. We find ourselves wishing that all three will be happy, even that Claire will find a way to be with both. Daniel is a good guy; he gives Claire what she needs at a time when she is desperate to have it. He behaves with dignity and class. Chris, too, is a good man. His heartbreak over being away from his family is real and evident, even if he mistakenly attempts to shoulder more of the stress than he should. As for Claire, we do not want her to lead Daniel on, nor do we want her to be unfaithful to Chris. That Graves could so wonderfully craft characters that leave us trapped in this paradox is admirable.

For all of that, though, there are issues. The friends are somewhat too cookie cutter-ish, and for all of the time we spend with them, we need more from them. The ending is a bit too neat, although I am grateful to not be left frustrated.

Read, enjoy, and revel in Tracy Garvis Graves' ability to write a good story.

Equililbrium

Equilibrium
by Lorrie Thomsen
Published by Kensington
336 pages
Genre: women's fiction
Thanks to NetGalley for the preview
4 / 5


Laura Klein is two-for-three when it comes to saving her husband's life. That one time she missed, things didn't turn out so well.

Now it's a year later, and Laura is adjusting to widowhood and being a single mother to her teenage children. She struggles with missing Jack; sometimes she aches for him, and sometimes she feels pure rage. He was bipolar and didn't take his meds regularly. He made Laura do everything, including keep him alive. He was selfish, and Laura can't quite bring herself to admit that.

Her fifteen-year-old daughter Darcy is also struggling. Darcy was a Daddy's Girl, and while she doesn't quite blame Laura for Jack's death, she also doesn't forgive her, either. She wants him back, despite him clearly being selfish with her as well. She is a girl in a tremendous amount of pain and grief.

Troy, the thirteen-year-old son whom Jack left behind, chooses to mourn by not remembering anything good about his father. As we discover, Troy didn't have many happy memories. Jack was not a particularly good father to his son; he seemed to parse out what decent parenting he did to Darcy alone.

Into the Kleins' lives come two men who will change everything.

The first is Nick, Darcy's ne'er-do-well boyfriend. Nick has his own issues, including an abusive father. That he loves Darcy is not under question. He does. He even takes care of her in his own way. But as each character - Darcy's friends and her mother - warn her about him, Darcy digs her heels in every deeper. They don't know the Troy whom Darcy knows.

Then there is Aidan, an emergency room doctor in his late twenties, who rents out Jack's old writing studio. Aidan is described as movie star hot, and we know it's only a matter of time until he and Laura discover each other.

Nick and Aidan shake up the Kleins. Nick both protects and threatens Darcy, as Aidan does Laura. The danger Nick poses, however, is far greater than Aidan. He could break Darcy's heart - or worse. Aidan, on the other hand, could be proof that Jack was not a good man, that he was cruel and selfish and weak. Nick's threat is primarily physical; Aidan's emotional.

Lorrie Thomson tells her story from Laura's and Darcy's points of view. We feel Laura's frustration at not being able to help Darcy, just as we feel Darcy's toward her mother. We remember what it was like to be fifteen and in love for the first time, and we experience Laura's sadness, confusion, and hopefulness.

Thomson's writing is not always clear or fluid, but she tells a strong tale. She makes us care about Laura, Darcy, and Troy, and she does a fantastic job representing the conflicting feelings that families of those who commit suicide.

A solid debut from Lorrie Thomsen.

First Affair

The First Affair
by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Published by Atria Books
256 pages
Genre: women's literature
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
5 / 5


Do you ever wonder about the women involved in sex scandals? Do you want to ask them, "What the hell were you thinking?" Do you shake your head in disgust? Blame them? Salute them? Pity them?

I'll admit that I was fascinated by Monica Lewinsky. I didn't find Bill Clinton to be particularly good looking, and certainly not hot, but power is the ultimate aphrodisiac (thank you, Henry Kissinger, for giving voice to that), so who knows? Perhaps if I worked with him, I would have been more open to him, sexually speaking. Or any sort of speaking. Lewinsky was young, and when I was in my early twenties, my taste in men was ridiculous.

And so we come to First Affair, which tells the story of a young college graduate's White House internship and the close - I do mean close - proximity in which she finds herself with the President of the United States.

Jamie McAllister is fresh out of college and watching all of the money that went to her degree appear to be worthless. She got an internship at the White House and is singularly unimpressed. Internships don't pay for student loans. Thanks to the kindness of a friend, she's able to live rent free ... for now, anyway. But she is restless and wants a real, paying job.

As for President Rutland (I'm sure the "rut" part of his name is not an accidental choice on the part of the authors), he of the taint of rumors regarding a previous pass made at a young woman, Jamie has little to no contact with him. Until, that is, a chance meeting in the hallway. Their paths cross, and then they cross again. And then they cross with a little more passion.

Jamie's affair resembles Lewinsky's in many ways: the physical natures are quite similar, and the scandal surrounding it erupts with the same feral ferocity. Jamie is, remember, young. She is impressionable. She does not have the benefit of much life experience, and her decisions reflect that. She does not know, for instance, how to choose her friends or how to know whom she can trust. Can she trust Rutland? Herself?

The romance - and it is a romance - is fascinating. We know why Jamie is attracted to Rutland, and we come to learn why he is attracted to her. What we don't know is why he risked so much (the affair takes place during an election cycle) to be with her. We can guess, based on what we know of other powerful men brought down by their dangly bits. Perhaps he felt untouchable (no pun intended). Perhaps it is as simple as hubris. Or maybe Rutland's passion for Jamie was so intense that the threat of scandal and ruin just did not matter.

There is quite a bit of intrigue going on here as well. Jamie gets betrayed, and betrayed again. She comes to question her character judgments, and rightfully so. She is hopelessly naive, but that's what makes her so believable as a character. What twenty-two-year-old woman in love with an older man (or any age man, for that matter) manages to think straight? She believes in him and she trusts him. She cannot conceive of him ever abandoning her or betraying her.

Yes, there is the matter of Mrs. Rutland. We don't find out much about her, but there is a photograph of her with her husband that piques Jamie's guilt. Jamie is very much aware that Rutland has a wife, and, like most of us would, she justifies her relationship with him. She occasionally allows reality to creep in, but she refuses to let it take root.

Jamie is wonderfully written. She exasperates us and frustrates us, yet she makes us care about her. There were times while reading this that I hoped she and Rutland could be together and be happy. Like Jamie, I didn't want to face reality.

I am a fan of McLaughlin and Kraus, having enjoyed Between You and Me a great deal. I enjoyed this book as well, and I had a difficult time letting go of it when I finished. I may not have always liked Jamie, and I may not have always agreed with her decisions, but I was on her side.

She made me more empathetic to the Monica Lewinskys of the world.

The Husband's Secret

The Husband's Secret
by Liane Moriarty
Published by Putnam Adult
416 pages
Genre: literature, women's literature
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
5 / 5


This is one of those books that I needed to think about and sort of digest before I could write about it. It's that good.

Who amongst us doesn't worry about what secrets our loved ones will discover about us after we die? Perhaps a stray email or a photo that looks suspicious. Some of us even write letters to our families, letters they only can read after we die.

That is the premise for this strong, solid book: Cecile happens upon a letter written in her husband's handwriting, addressed to her, and stating that it is to be opened upon his death. Unfortunately, she finds it while he's still alive.

Cecile manages to put off opening the envelope; those of you in need of a speedy resolution need to reconnect with your patience, because we do not learn the contents of that envelope until about 200 pages in. By that point, we know Cecile, dynamo stay-at-home mom and Tupperware saleswoman. She's the sort who makes and freezes two lasagnes, returns umpteen emails, and schedules appointments all before her husband and children wake up. That she does it with a smile and aplomb makes her even more enviable. But we like her, if only because she admits that she occasionally parents better when there is an audience.

We also have gotten to know Tess, who runs an advertising agency with her husband Will and cousin Felicity. Tess and her cousin have been best friends since they exited their wombs, although Tess wonders how much of that friendship was a boost to her own ego because Felicity was morbidly obese until about six months ago. She lost a lot of weight, became gorgeous, and Tess is happy for her. Happy, that is, until Will and Felicity announce they are in love.

Then there is Rachel, a seventy-year-old school office worker who continues to struggle, over thirty years later, with the unsolved murder of her daughter. Rachel revels in her grandson, whom she can dote on and adore. But then her son announces that his wife has accepted a job in New York, halfway across the world from their home in Sydney, Australia, and Rachel plummets into sadness.

The three women's stories overlap, and we slowly become aware of how. There is a mystery here - who killed Rachel's daughter - and its solution unleashes catastrophic consequences. Moriarty frames her story with that of Pandora, asking if Pandora was all that smart in opening up the box. That becomes one of the central questions: are we better off knowing each other's secrets, or is ignorance truly bliss?

Just as gripping as the mystery is the sense of pending doom for Cecile, Tess, and Rachel. Moriarty tends to this mood of suspenseful despair by taking us fully into the minds of her characters. We know Cecile's desperation to understand her husband. We grieve with Rachel. We feel anger and frustration with Tess. As they maneuver their ways through these few weeks of their lives, their search for contentment becomes important for us as well. Therein lies Moriarty's success as a writer: she makes us care.

While the Pandora allusion works, there are two other metaphors at play that are more intriguing. Cecile's daughter is obsessed with the Berlin Wall, and as she learns more about it, she is surprised to discover that some East and West Germans were nonplussed with the wall's destruction; they were comfortable with it, and the freedoms its removal ushered in discomfited them. We understand this, especially as Cecile confronts the letter.

Perhaps the more intriguing metaphor, however, is Cecile's job. It is no accident that she sells containers. Cecile's life is all about containment and storage, with each piece knowing its spot. Oldest daughter Isabel's burgeoning womanhood disturb's Cecile because it does not fit; she needs to create a new container for this part of parenting. When she learns what her husband wanted her to know only after his death, she must confront the dismantling of all of her storage bins. They burst open and force her to reorganize her carefully arranged life.

You will find yourself asking several "what ifs" as you read this book. What would you do? How would you react?

You also will find yourself wondering what your family will discover about you when you die.

All the Summer Girls

All the Summer Girls
by Meg Donohue
Published by William Morrow
288 pages
Genre: chick lit; women's fiction
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
3.5 / 5


Threesomes can be awkward.

There are risks involved. Someone may feel left out, two may gang up on one, the balance is off. When they work, they work gloriously. But when they don't, well, that's where we get interesting ideas for books.

Kate, Vanessa, and Dani have been friends since high school, and although the three have gone their separate ways, the chord between them still pulls tightly. Their closeness may not be what it once was, but they are the sort of friends who, even after months or years apart, can reunite and slip back into "normalcy." Or what accounts for normalcy for the three of them.

They last were together at Vanessa's wedding to the son of a famous newscaster. Vanessa and Dani got into a vicious argument, the particulars of which we do not learn about till later. The same goes for secrets the three women hold regarding a tragedy that befell them the last summer they spent together at the Jersey Shore: the death of Kate's twin brother, Colin. Life for none of them has been the same since.

When Kate's fiancé dumps her three months prior to their wedding, she calls upon Dani and Vanessa to join her at the Shore. Secrets will be revealed, relationships tested, and friendships elasticized to embrace the changes that the three have undergone since Colin's death. Can they find their way back to each other, back to their closeness? Each needs the other desperately, as each woman faces upheavals in her life.

The story lines are interesting, if not a little predictable. Happily married Vanessa may not be so happy after all, Kate needs to feel attractive to men, and Dani needs to find herself. We've seen this before. But Donohue puts a fresh spin on the tales by unfolding her stories in a way that keeps us engaged and reading. The mystery of Colin's death directs the book, and we becomes as invested in finding out what happened as the friends do. Each thinks she knows the full story, but none do.

When you have three "heroines," the worry is that one will get short shrift. Again, the problem of threesomes. That is here to some degree. Kate is the most fully realized in that we see her not just through her own eyes but through Dani's and Vanessa's as well. She's a neat freak with OCD tendencies, a bad driver, the daughter of two loving parents, a twin without a twin. When we see her through her friend's perspectives, we feel we know her. We can't say the same for Dani and Vanessa, who appear more cookie cutter than Kate, more predictable. What we learn about them from their friends is what we expect to learn. Unfortunately, there are no surprises.

There is a little romance here, but the real romance isn't between the women and any men. It's between the friends themselves. They care about each other, and although they betray one another in various ways, their love and loyalty binds them as strongly as any romance or marriage would.

It's a good summer read. Enjoy.

Time Flies

Time Flies
by Claire Cook
Published by Touchstone
320 pages
Genre: women's lit; chick lit
Thanks to edelweiss and NetGalley for the previews
5 / 5


I am a big fan of Claire Cook, having enjoyed Wallflower in Bloom tremendously. I was excited to get my hands on Time Flies and discovered that I had been looking forward to another book from her more than I realized.

I was not disappointed in the least.

High school reunions are similar to dentist appointments in that we know we need to go get checked out, but we dread the process entailed. Afterwards, though, we're glad we were cleansed.

So it is for Melanie, who moved away from her small Massachusetts town years earlier. She and husband Kurt headed south to Atlanta, where they raised two sons. Now Kurt has left her for another woman and the sons are grown, leading their own lives. But when the invitation to her reunion shows up, Melanie is determined not to attend.

Her BFF B.J., though, has other plans. She cajoles, begs, bribes, and attempts to blackmail Melanie into going. For all of B.J.'s force of nature personality, however, it's the prospect of meeting up with a former flame that truly nudges Melanie to show up.

Kurt's betrayal aside, Melanie has other issues she needs to face. She has a crippling phobia of highways and will drive as far out of her way as necessary to avoid them. This becomes the symbol for Melanie's literal and metaphorical journey: she needs to overcome her fears, whether of highways or of being alone or rejection.

Be prepared to laugh out loud. B.J. is the friend we all want to have. She is relentlessly on your side, but she isn't afraid of calling you on your crap, either. She and Melanie adorn their conversations with cultural references to everything from Romy and Michelle to Thelma and Louise. We are never told just which reunion this is, but given the song titles, shows, and movies, it appears to be around 35 years, putting the two women in their fifties, an age where we know better but that still doesn't stop us.

The two women meet up with high school friends, discovering just how starkly out of touch they are with each other. Yet Claire Cook also wants us to know that those childhood, teenage bonds are some of the strongest of our lives, because for all of the distance between them, the friends rediscover and reclaim their connections. Melanie also has to reconnect with her sister, from whom she has been estranged throughout adulthood.

Melanie's fears are realistic and relatable. The older we get, the more conscious we are of mortality, of time running out. We become a little more fearful. Does that twinge signify something serious, or is it minor? We worry about our children, our spouses, our parents. We worry. We have fears. For Melanie, those fears are exacerbated by Kurt's departure. Now she has added fears: will she be alone? Will she be able to support herself? Will she be a burden?

The reunion proves to be cathartic in ways Melanie (and B.J.) could not have expected, nor in ways we expect. We grow to care about those two women, and that's thanks to Claire Cook's ability to write a story and create dynamic characters.

I can't wait to read her next novel.

Finding Colin Firth

Finding Colin Firth
by Mia March
Published by Gallery Books
336 pages
Genre: women's lit; chick lit
Thanks to edelweiss and NetGalley for the previews
3.5 / 5


I adore Colin Firth. In fact, I like to think of him as my former future husband. He's tall, elegant, witty, snarky, and of course there is the whole Mr. Darcy thing. So can I understand a woman's obsession with him? Yes. Yes, I can.

Boothbay Harbor, Maine, is about to get a whole lot more exciting, because Colin Firth is coming to town to film a movie. His arrival will impact three women in particular: Gemma, Bea, and Veronica.

Gemma lives in New York City, is in her twenties, and married. She adores her husband, even if she feels as if they are becoming estranged. When they got married, they had the same goals, the same ideals. They wanted the city life, were ambivalent about a timetable for having children, wanted to pursue their careers. But her husband wants to speed up their "somedays" and make them today. He wants a house in the suburb and children, and he wants Gemma to tone down her career. The latter appears to happen when she loses her job, but Gemma does not capitulate quite so readily. When the opportunity comes to visit a friend in Boothbay Harbor, she takes it, and her visit becomes an extended one when she lands a freelance job writing about a local home for unwed pregnant women.

Shortly after her mother dies, Bea receives a letter from her. The contents are a bombshell: the people Bea knew as her parents are not, in fact, biologically connected to her. They adopted her as an infant. Bea becomes curious; who is her birth mother? Who are her biological parents? She discovers that her birth mother was once in a home for unwed pregnant girls up in Boothbay Harbor, so she heads north to investigate her background.

Having given up her daughter for adoption after a surprise teenage pregnancy, Veronica found herself without a clear path. She dabbled in cooking and moved around to different states. Now she's back in Boothbay, hoping to meet her daughter some day, and still feeling unsettled. She can't seem to have a lasting relationship with any man other than Colin Firth, whose movies provide a salve to her struggles.

Obviously, these three women will connect, with that Colin Firth production in the background.

This is a sweet story. In fact, that's the best word to describe it: sweet. The three women are not perfect; they make mistakes, they mishandle situations, and they can't seem to find a way to be happy. We like them, though, because of those flaws, and we cheer them toward the happiness they deserve. If Colin Firth can help, all the better.

This is the second in a series - The Meryl Streep Movie Club came first - but you don't need to have read the first installment. I didn't, and I had no trouble picking up the story lines in this book. As someone who was adopted, I found Bea and Veronica's stories the most compelling, but I think any working woman will relate to Gemma. They are three very likable characters, fully written and rounded. The same can't be said for some of the other characters, and there are times the pacing slows down. Still, though, it's a pleasant read.

The Summer Girls

The Summer Girls
by Mary Alice Monroe
Published by Gallery Books
400 pages
Genre: women's lit
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
3.5 / 5


Sometimes a grandma has to do what a grandma has to do, and if stooping to a little emotional blackmail is required, what's the harm?

Sea Breeze, a South Carolina island home, has been in the Muir family for generations, although lately the only people enjoying it are Marietta (Mamaw) and her maid. Mamaw's son, a somewhat pathetic drunk of a charmer, is dead, and his three daughters - by three different baby mamas - are spread out across the country. With Sea Breeze increasingly becoming more work than it's worth, Mamaw decides to sell it and head off to a retirement home, but not before trying to get her three granddaughters together one last time. She invites them ostensibly for a weekend to celebrate her birthday, but when they get there, she demands they stay the summer. If they want their inheritance, they will.

The eldest, Dora, lives in South Carolina with her autistic son Nate, and has recently been left by her husband. Carson is out in California, where she works as a set photographer, and the youngest, Harper, is in New York, where she works for her frosty British mother. The three girls agree to stay, and we readers rub our hands together, knowing that secrets will be revealed, relationships discovered, and drama entailed.

The first of a planned trilogy, this one focuses primarily on Carson. She's the first to the island, but not out of any burning desire to see Mamaw. She lost her job and has no money, so she's hoping that the sale of Sea Breeze will give her a financial boost. But not so fast, Carson. First, she needs to get a j-o-b. She becomes a waitress at a local pub, where she meets a handsome marine biologist focused on saving dolphins. This connection becomes important, because while out surfing, Carson comes under potential attack by a shark and is rescued by a dolphin. You learn a lot about dolphins in this book, but in a good way. It's interesting stuff.

Dora and Nate arrive, as does Harper, and the three girls attempt to forge a relationship. They learn more details about their shared father, as well as about each other. Their burgeoning closeness does not feel forced or unnatural; it proceeds the way you think it would, slowly and in fits and starts.

Sea Breeze is a silent character throughout, as are the South Carolina waters. If this book doesn't make you ache to take off your shoes and dig your toes in the sand, nothing will. There are times you think you can smell the ocean and feel the dolphin's skin.

As stories go, Monroe writes a fairly interesting one. The characters occasionally seem cookie-cutter, but I expect that will change once we get to know Dora and Harper. With Carson fully fleshed out, you can see potential for the other two. Mamaw is entirely predictable and straight out of Central Casting, but her purpose here is to operate as a conduit to get to know her "summer girls." If it occasionally gets too focused on dolphins, that's okay, because Monroe wants us to understand them better. Perhaps if we are more conscious of what harms them, we will take better care of them.

The Perfume Collector

The Perfume Collector
by Kathleen Tessaro
Published by Harper
464 pages
Genre: women's fiction
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
4.5 / 5

Grace Monroe has a stable, if unexciting and unfulfilling, life. It's post WWII London, and Grace and her husband are trying to determine the course of their marriage now that Grace has been pronounced unable to bear a child. She knows her husband is disappointed, but to what degree? What does this mean for them?

Into this uncertainty arrives a letter from Paris. Grace has an inheritance waiting for her, but she knows nothing of the woman who bequeathed it to her. To receive it, she must travel to Paris, alone, and meet with the solicitor. Grace greedily accepts the challenge, and off she goes.

Alternating with Grace's story is that of Eva D'Orsey, the woman who leaves her estate for Grace. Eva came to the United States as a young teen, at which she was discovered by a perfumer and her assistant. Eva's travels take her to England and France, where she leads a dynamic, eventful life. But why does she leave everything to Grace?

Tessaro peppers her story with clues, and astute readers will solve the mystery fairly quickly. The good news is that even with the questions answered, you still want to keep reading. You want to know more about Eva, about how she ended up where she did. Why did she choose those particular paths? You also want to know more about Grace. What will come of her marriage? Will she find Paris as healing a location as Eva did?

This is a lovely, atmospheric novel populated by intriguing characters and a good, solid story. You feel a kinship with Grace right from the start, and you side with her against those trying to derail her. If Eva is not as lovable, then so be it. Grace is the heart of the novel.

The fact that Eva is involved in perfumery is interesting itself, operating as a sort of metaphor for the women's paths of self-discovery. Your senses must be acutely attuned in order to be successful in that line of work. You must be able to discern different nuances and flavors, different contributors and detractors. Eva understands what comprises an attractive scent, something Grace must learn for herself.

The men in the book are not as interesting as the women, but they serve their purposes well. Grace's husband is just a loathsome man, and we anxiously wish her to bid him good riddance. The Parisian solicitor, though, much like some of the unexpected oils in Eva's perfumes, enhances Grace's world, making it more vivid and more alluring. But does Grace see that, or does she more highly value marital commitment?

Tessaro's story is told evocatively and lovingly. This is a delightful novel with an enchanting story and lovely characters.

The Longings of Wayward Girls

The Longings of Wayward Girls
by Karen Brown
Published by Washington Square Press
336 pages
Genre: women's fiction; mystery
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
4 / 5


Children can be cruel, cruel beings whose meanness knows no bounds. We realize this, of course, those of us who emerged from our childhoods without inflicting too much damage on others or ourselves. But sometimes, we merely think we survived. All it takes is something that trips our memory to remind us that our suffering continues.

Such is the case with Sadie, a beautiful blonde daughter of a beautiful blonde mother. Sadie knows she is prettier than other kids, and she uses this as a weapon against them. She does have some friends, but we quickly realize that they are friends because they fear her more than out of any true affection. When Sadie begins picking on an unfortunate classmate, her friends follow along. One day, Sadie decides to play what appears to be a harmless prank on the girl, but it quickly turns dangerous when the girl disappears.

Twenty years later, Sadie remains gloriously blonde and gloriously aloof, still living in her hometown, married to a handsome man and mother to two beautiful children. From all appearances, Sadie is happy and has achieved something, although she currently is beset with grief over a miscarriage. But that awful day still lurks in her mind, try as she does to make it disappear.

Also involved in Sadie's childhood was Ray Filley, a neighbor boy on whom Sadie had a fierce crush. Ray moved away years earlier, but his reappearance triggers Sadie's memories. It also triggers the teenage lust she felt for him, and the two begin circling each other.

The mystery hooks you: what happened to that missing girl? But there are so many layers to this novel that the mystery almost becomes secondary. In fact, there are three different story lines taking place in three different time periods. There is the modern-day Sadie, the wife and grieving mother who watches her nicely constructed life disintegrate in a cloud of dis-fulfillment and dissatisfaction. There is twelve-year-old Sadie in 1979, perched on the edge of her teenage years, trying to understand her mother and her feelings about Ray. Then there is Sadie in 1972, the year the little girl went missing. What role did Sadie play? How did that Sadie set up 1979 Sadie? How did her past create the woman she is now?

You need to be patient with this book because it does not unfold quickly. In fact, the 1979 thread seems superfluous at first. What's so important about this year? As Brown begins to reveal secrets, the three stories come together, and Sadie becomes fully realized, fully developed, and very human. We become entangled in her travails and trajectories. We want to protect her even as we want to hold her accountable. She shocks us, but she does not repel us.

One thing Brown does very well is create mood and atmosphere. We are right back in 1972, feeling shag carpeting under our toes. We are in the small Connecticut town with Sadie and her friends, and we find ourselves as drawn to Ray as Sadie is. We also join her in the present, reacting with her to Ray's reappearance and her sadness over the miscarriage. Brown's writing latches onto us like quicksand, pulling us deeper and deeper into the story.

Give this one a chance. Don't expect it to be resolved quickly or neatly. Roll along with it, enjoy it, and experience it.

Five Days

Five Days
by Douglas Kennedy
Published by Atria Books
336 pages
Genre: fiction; women's fiction
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
4 / 5


People get married for all sorts of reasons. Compatibility, financial comfort, escape, passion. Some even get married because they love each other.

In the case of Laura and Dan, true love may not have been the motivating factor, but while their marriage may lack passion and romance, and while Laura may have had to force herself into a state of contentment, they're still working at it, twenty years and two children later. This isn't to say that Laura does not sense that there is something else - if not exactly better - out there for her. Part of this is due to having a teenage daughter about to head off to college. Laura does not live vicariously through her child, but she does allow herself to feel a sort of wistful sense of loss. It doesn't help that Dan is a bit of a turd. He recently suffered some professional woes, which he battles by withdrawing from his wife.

Under this haze, Laura heads to Boston for a professional workshop. While there, she meets Richard, who is described as a very gray man in both appearance and demeanor. Nothing about him appeals to Laura, not in any sense. But they meet a second time, and after talking with him, Laura discovers that he is actually a very vivid man.

Like Laura, Richard's marriage is not all he wishes it to be, and in her he sees a somewhat kindred soul. The two are attracted to each other, but to act on it ... ah. There lies the conundrum. If they were to have an affair, what would be the cost to their marriages? And if they didn't pursue passion, what would be the cost to themselves?

Laura is a likable woman, and we see her conflict, whether with her daughter, her husband, Richard, or herself. She is recognizable; most of us know a Laura, and for some of us, we are Laura. She has managed to compartmentalize her life into tidy cubbies, even amongst her friends. Richard's arrival calls into question all that she has so neatly arranged. We know, as well as she does, that the temptation Richard presents could cause cataclysmic upheavals in Laura's life, regardless of whether or not she has an affair with him. Just by being a possibility, Richard upends Laura's manufactured contentment.

Douglas Kennedy's story is not predictable, nor does it flinch from the challenging questions it asks. If it is not always gripping or engrossing, we can forgive him because he takes no easy turns and offers no easy answers. We keep reading because we care; we want to know if Laura can find the fulfillment she deserves.

I enjoyed this book. It isn't an "I can't sleep until I know what happens!" kind of book, but it should not be dismissed because it isn't. The story pulls you in and the characters keep you engaged.

Making It

Making It
by Helen Klein Ross
Published by Pocket Star
300 pages
Genre: women's lit
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
4 / 5


Sometimes you read a book and discover that there is no one worth rooting for in the tome. None of the characters are even all that likable.

Such is the case with Making It.

Audrey is a fortysomething woman caught in the throes of a staid, predictable life. She has spent twenty-two years as the breadwinner for her husband, teenage son, and herself, working as an ad woman for a New York agency. Due to a computer snafu, Audrey believes she has been fired. She spends the ensuing hours imagining what her life will become, what will become of her son and husband as well, all while hosting her husband's birthday party.

But then it turns out she wasn't fired after all. So all of that ruminating - all of those "this is what I will change" thoughts - for nothing, because Audrey proceeds to change absolutely zilch about her life. She heads right back to work, makes no effort to spend more time with her son, and falls back into the same routines with her husband.

And so it would go for her, except that her firm is sold to a larger one, and her predictable life finally begins to change. Audrey soon begins working closely with her new Indian boss, the exotic Kabal Prakesh, to whom she finds herself quite attracted. Perhaps Audrey's life will take an even more interesting turn.

Unfortunately, by the time this happens, you might not care.

Audrey seemingly is incapable of learning anything, and is apparently devoid of any self-introspection whatsoever. What's worse is that she knows she needs to make changes in her life; she sees that she should spend more time with her son, who is about to head off to college. She realizes that she is not a good wife to her husband. But yet all of that self-knowledge is very much on the surface. It's as if she thinks she deserves commendation for recognizing her foibles, even if she refuses to do anything about them.

Kabal supposedly represents the Audrey that Could Have Been. Will she give in and sleep with him? What if she does? Will anything change in her life? We know her well enough at this point to predict that nothing would. In fact, her dithering about whether she should or should not is frustrating, to say the least.

It isn't as if her husband is any more likable. He's just as dull and uninspiring as she is. If we are meant to feel sympathy for Kabal, with his arranged marriage wife back in India, that doesn't happen either. Kabal is a bit of a rhymes-with-tick. He knows it, Audrey knows it, and everyone associated with him knows it. Like Audrey, he doesn't seem to be in any hurry to improve upon his weaknesses.

So why read this book? Because it's good. Helen Klein Ross knows how to tell a story, and if her characters are not quite people you would want as friends, it makes her story all the more believable. Audrey certainly is not too good to be true, and her perfect-on-the-outside life is relatable. How many of us don't have problems we know need addressing, but we are too content with how predictable our lives are to change anything? Yep. I thought so. Me too.