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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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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.