Giffin's fans will be pleased with this fast-paced, witty, and thoughtful new offering.
A family struggles to define their new normal 15 years after a tragic loss.
Sisters Josie and Meredith couldn’t be more different. While Josie is an occasionally capricious, still-single elementary school teacher longing for a child of her own, Meredith is a diligent and obsessive lawyer, mother, and wife. Though Meredith desperately tries to create a “perfect Facebook façade,” there are definite cracks at the edges. She is uninterested in trying for a second child, feels listless in her career, and questions the foundation of her marriage. Josie, meanwhile, is attempting to cope with the heavy emotional burden of having her ex-boyfriend’s—the one she still isn’t completely over—young daughter assigned to her class. At nearly 38, with no romantic prospects in sight, Josie decides that she will have to take charge of her desire to be a mother, setting off Meredith, who considers this to be just another one of Josie’s whims. At the core of this troubled family are the grief that lingers over their brother Daniel’s untimely death, the questions that swirl regarding what exactly happened on that fateful night, and the rapidly approaching milestone anniversary. Bestseller Giffin (The One & Only, 2014, etc.) juggles Josie’s quest for motherhood and Meredith’s internal conflicts deftly, with the third force always being their lost brother and the feelings of what their family could have been had things worked out differently. While Josie and Meredith sometimes seem just a touch too self-aware considering their foibles, Giffin paints a realistic portrait of the troubled and complex relationship between a pair of sisters. Beyond the sisters, the novel is rich with well-drawn characters, from Gabe, Josie’s best friend and platonic roommate, to Sophie, Daniel’s girlfriend at the time of his death.
Giffin's fans will be pleased with this fast-paced, witty, and thoughtful new offering.Pub Date: June 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-345-54692-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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