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SECOND WIVES

Name: SECOND WIVES
Author: Cindy Blake
ISBN: 0-312-19328-9

by Cindy Blake ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1999

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The fourth novel but first to appear here by Blake, an American living in London, is a witty, spirited romp through that troubled terrain where stepchildren and first wives exact their revenge on second wives. The four Preston sisters, Meg, Beth, Amy, and Leonora, have supported one another from the start. Although she died when Leonora was only eight, their mother Victoria had never really been there for her daughters. Grieving over the death of firstborn Steven, Victoria’s behavior became increasingly bizarre as the girls grew older. One memorable time she abandoned them in a store because she imagined she saw Steven, and they were rescued by a young man named Stuart, whom Beth has never forgotten. They all live now in Boston but are estranged from their wealthy father Mark, whom they blame for their mother’s death. As the story begins, the sisters are worried about Leonora, who, still a student, wants to marry older and separated Nick. Though she’s the eldest, Meg (whose husband Charles is gunning for the presidency of Harvard) still defers to Beth, a therapist whose energy and decisiveness make her the family leader. After a failed marriage to charming but unreliable Patrick, Amy, convinced she’s boring, is married to solid Jimmy. As Meg tries to cope with Charles, his ex-wife, and his two sons, Beth learns that their long-ago rescuer Stuart is back in town. Amy, jealous of Jimmy’s first wife, is tempted to get back with Patrick, and Lenora learns that Nick’s wife Jackie is not going give him up easily. The drama is ratcheted up when the sisters learn the horrifying truth about Victoria’s death. But the Preston sisters are strong, and family ties, a new love, and a decision by one sister to end a bad marriage bring agreeable resolutions to a page-turner of a story. A literate and bracing take on subjects that more often are maudlin wallows in self-pity and recrimination.

Pub Date: July 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-312-19328-9

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.