An engaging novel written by women, about women whose flaws are as appealing as their strengths.
An exotic vacation turns into a nightmare in Frisbee and Farnsworth’s novel.
Lily, Grace, Penn, Deedee, Cat and Amelia have been friends for over 12 years, leaning on each other for support as they weather marital woes and challenging children. Their husbands—golfing buddies who initially introduced the wives—are all flawed in their own unique yet unappealing ways. The men are inattentive, cheaters, liars, self-absorbed, immature or alcoholics. The wives are largely long-suffering traditionalists who outwardly accept the lot they have been given and attempt to maintain their marriages by placating their husbands. Internally, the women struggle with their own unhappiness and insecurities. Yet the lives they work so hard to maintain begin to crumble during a spontaneous trip to the Isle of Capri, Italy. Lily, a fashion designer, can’t turn down an exciting professional opportunity and invites her friends to accompany her to Italy. They depart for Capri, anticipating a relaxing escape from the responsibilities of daily life. Despite high expectations, their vacation quickly turns into a battleground as the women square off and friendships begin to fracture. Each woman is forced to face the reality of her unhappy home life, and rather than pull together, the friends make moral choices whose consequences drive them further apart. Frisbee and Farnsworth use the lovely Isle of Capri as a backdrop for their story of friendship, offering a gorgeous villa and stunning scenery to complement the beautiful women. Yet the authors deliver a surprise narrative; rather than settling for light and frothy chick lit, they delve into the difficult dynamics of women’s friendships, tackling the costs of unhappiness and unrealized expectations. Set in the late 1970s, the stories of these six friends represent a changing culture for women that begins to embrace independence instead of settling for the roles of unhappy wife and frustrated mother. The story is narrated from multiple perspectives, and Frisbee and Farnsworth provide a diverse set of characters whose interactions are entirely believable while the changing dynamic of their friendships reflect reality.
An engaging novel written by women, about women whose flaws are as appealing as their strengths.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482511406
Page Count: 326
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
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.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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