One and a half volumes into her series, Peloquin’s central mystery plot finally begins to come together.
A few weeks after having moved to a superrich swath of the Connecticut shore (The Innocents, 2012), sisters Charlie and Alice are beginning to settle in—kind of. Charlie and Jude are a confirmed couple, and shockingly, Jude’s cousin and sometime lover, Cybill, seems to welcome this development. Alice and Tommy, her dead stepsister Camilla’s former boyfriend, are also romantically paired, though Tommy insists on keeping the relationship secret. Alice’s mother has confirmed her longtime affair with her new, moneybags second husband—actually Alice’s father, making the girl’s relationship to Camilla an uncomfortably close one. On the periphery are two poorer characters: Stan, the handsome waiter Charlie discusses Fitzgerald with, and Nick, newly returned from Dartmouth for the summer; he’s Tommy’s disgraced ex-doctor father’s former intern. Viewed from above, it’s a Busby Berkeley ballet, country-club style: Characters couple; they part; they rearrange and couple again according to some unheard, rich-people gavotte. At the dismal center is Camilla’s suicide, which Alice thinks was foul play. Peloquin can write, there’s no question, and the dialectic she sets up between rich and poor is an interesting one, when her characters aren’t bitching at each other.
No one will read these books for the mystery, which is so glacially developed it’s easy to forget, what with all the sex, drugs and misery. (Chick-lit/mystery. 14 & up)Pub Date: June 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59514-566-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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Riveting, brutal and beautifully told.
29
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A devastating tale of greed and secrets springs from the summer that tore Cady’s life apart.
Cady Sinclair’s family uses its inherited wealth to ensure that each successive generation is blond, beautiful and powerful. Reunited each summer by the family patriarch on his private island, his three adult daughters and various grandchildren lead charmed, fairy-tale lives (an idea reinforced by the periodic inclusions of Cady’s reworkings of fairy tales to tell the Sinclair family story). But this is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters’ slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady’s fairy-tale retellings are dark, as is the personal tragedy that has led to her examination of the skeletons in the Sinclair castle’s closets; its rent turns out to be extracted in personal sacrifices. Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family’s foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying. Instead, she humanizes them (and their painful contradictions) by including nostalgic images that showcase the love shared among Cady, her two cousins closest in age, and Gat, the Heathcliff-esque figure she has always loved. Though increasingly disenchanted with the Sinclair legacy of self-absorption, the four believe family redemption is possible—if they have the courage to act. Their sincere hopes and foolish naïveté make the teens’ desperate, grand gesture all that much more tragic.
Riveting, brutal and beautifully told. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-74126-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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A summer trip helps break 18-year-old Meredith Fox out of a haze of mourning.
Her cousin’s wedding means a return to Martha’s Vineyard, a well-loved destination but one filled with bittersweet memories. It’s been a year and a half since the sudden loss of Meredith’s sister, Claire, and the grief remains strong. Meredith, though, resolves to take this time to celebrate family and bridge the rifts resulting from ghosting friends. She didn’t plan on a meet-cute/embarrassing encounter with the groom’s stepbrother, Wit. Nor did she expect a wedding-week game of Assassin, a water-gun–fueled family tradition. What starts off as a pact of sharing strategic information with Wit grows into something more as the flirting and feelings develop. Only one person can win, though, and any alliance has an expiration date. To win and honor Claire, who was a master of the game, Meredith must keep her eye on the prize. Taking place over the course of a week, the narrative is tight with well-paced reveals that disrupt predictability and keep the plot moving. Early details are picked back up, and many elements come satisfyingly full circle. The short time frame also heightens the tension of this summer romance: What will happen when they leave the bubble of the Vineyard? The mix of budding romance, competitive hijinks, a close-knit circle, as well as dealing with loss make for a satisfying read. The main cast is White.
Summery fun and games with feeling. (family tree) (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72821-029-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
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