A Good Marriage

KIMBERLY MCCREIGHT

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, HarperCollins, 2020.

How acquired: NetGalley

(For the Goodreads synopsis, scroll to the bottom of this post.)

My thoughts: It took me about three weeks to read this book, longer than it should have. While reading I could generally become immersed in the story, but once I set it down and then picked it up again later (or closed my Kindle app and then reopened it later), it took a bit to get immersed again as I didn't seem to be retaining much in my head.

Lizzie narrates her part of the story, and relates to us how she receives a call from Zach, an old law school friend, who has been accused of murdering his wife and is currently in Rikers. He is insistent that she represent him, and she is reluctantly drawn into his case. Not because she believes he is guilty, but because she recently began working for a large corporate firm, where associates aren't allowed to bring in cases. To Lizzie's disappointment, her boss, who is a partner, flouts that rule and tells her to take the case.

The narration switches back and forth between Lizzie's story, and Amanda's story, told in third person POV, and going back over the days leading up to the murder. Despite the two being very different women, the narrative voices did not feel distinctive to me. Other than the POV, it was as if the same person were narrating.

The plot got quite convoluted, with a lot of surprises and reveals. But it was Amanda's story that drew me in and kept me reading. Her story was more of a character study than Lizzie's, and I'll take a character driven story over plot driven any day. The more we got to know Amanda the more I felt sorry for her. Referencing my earlier remark about not retaining much in between reading sessions, I actually do still remember quite a lot about Amanda, but not so much about Lizzie.

As for the supporting characters, I had a little trouble remembering which woman was who, as they seemed to run together. But I was able to keep the men straight in my head. And I hated Zach early on, long before we found out whether he was guilty or innocent.

Overall, not an especially memorable story other than some of Amanda's parts, but easy reading to while away some time.

Goodreads synopsis: Lizzie Kitsakis is working late when she gets the call. Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. That job and her brilliant, devoted husband Sam—she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then, suddenly, it all fell apart. 

No. That’s a lie. It wasn’t sudden, was it? Long ago the cracks in Lizzie’s marriage had started to show. She was just good at averting her eyes. 

The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help—even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: his wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect. 

As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed—and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Grace Hall private school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own. In the end, she’s left wondering not only whether her own marriage can be saved, but what it means to have a good marriage in the first place.

The Art of Hiding

AMANDA PROWSE

Synopsis from Goodreads: What would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie?

Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.

Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married. Forced to move out of her family home, Nina returns to the rundown Southampton council estate—and the sister—she thought she had left far behind.

But Nina can’t let herself be overwhelmed—her boys need her. To save them, and herself, she will have to do what her husband discouraged for so long: pursue a career of her own. Torn between the life she thought she knew and the reality she now faces, Nina finally must learn what it means to take control of her life.

Bestselling author Amanda Prowse once again plumbs the depths of human experience in this stirring and empowering tale of one woman’s loss and love.

Stats for my copy: Kindle edition, Lake Union Publishing, 2017.

How acquired: NetGalley.

My thoughts: After reading, or starting and giving up on, too many not good books, I stepped back from accepting review books for awhile. Granted, most of those not good books did not come to me via NetGalley, but were offered directly from the author or his/her representative. I felt so soured on the experience that I stayed off NetGalley for quite some time, and instead devoted my reading to books that were already in my massive TBR pile. But when I received a notification from NetGalley that I was auto approved for this book, I thought it sounded intriguing, so I accepted it. And I'm glad I did. 

It's a bit depressing at times, but ultimately quite uplifting. Nina's perfect life comes crashing down around her when her husband is killed in an auto accident. As if losing her husband wasn't enough, she soon learns that his business was in financial ruin, and before she has time to prepare she and her two sons are suddenly homeless and broke. She transitions from living in a huge house of splendor, ferrying her sons back and forth to their exclusive private school and spending her days mindlessly spending money left and right to living in a tiny flat in a bad neighborhood, getting a job, walking to work, and learning to live on a tight budget. It's hard on her, and hard on the boys. But along the way Nina learns to appreciate life and the small joys that come with it if you can keep your mind from being closed off. I enjoyed taking the journey with her, and watching her blossom from pampered housewife to confident working woman. The characters were all well written, with the boys being realistic kids. I loved how Nina and her sister reconnected, and there were a few times when I laughed out loud at their conversations. 

A really nice story about loss and love and learning to pick yourself up and find happiness in everyday life. 

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

I'm 146 pages into Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, and loving it of course, but this called to me from NetGalley, and I have read Voyager before (twice), so Claire and Jamie are now on hold for a short time.

Sanctuary

GARY D. SVEE

Synopsis from NetGalley: Winner of the 1990 Spur Award for Best Western Novel: An unlikely hero arrives in a hard town—can the wandering preacher bring justice to Sanctuary?

A hungry Indian boy waits by the train tracks, hopping back and forth to keep warm, praying that someone passing through the forgotten town of Sanctuary will throw him a scrap of food. A preacher gets off the train, thin and tan, and tells the boy to follow him. The preacher gives the child money and a meal, then sends him on his way. This is the first life Mordecai will save in Sanctuary. It will not be the last.

A hardscrabble town far from civilization, Sanctuary is lorded over by a hypocritical reverend and a cruel rancher. They see no threat in the preacher, but they underestimate him. A religious man hardened by life on the frontier, Mordecai is not afraid to thrash a sinner with his belt. He will remake this town in God’s image, or leave Sanctuary to burn.

Stats for my copy: E-book, published by Open Road Integrated Media, 4/7/14; downloaded from NetGalley.

First line: The train was late, but Judd Medicine Elk didn't know that, nor did he care.

My thoughts: When I was much younger, I went through a phase where I read a lot of Westerns, particularly Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey. But in the last few years the only westerns I've read have been mostly the Wagons West series by Dana Fuller Ross, and Lonesome Dove. I loved Lonesome Dove, and after that wonderful experience I began collecting westerns when I came across them at library sales and such. So when I received an email from Open Road Media, inviting me to review SANCTUARY via NetGalley, I took the plunge and joined NetGalley (something I'd been avoiding doing, for the simple reason that I prefer an actual book in my hands versus a digital book).

A mysterious preacher arrives in the little town of Sanctuary, and one by one begins intervening in the lives of various residents, helping them, and helping them help themselves. A young Indian boy living in poverty with his grandmother at the dump. A former doctor who now cleans a bar for a living and spends the rest of his time drunk. The preacher wades in and stirs things up. Despite all the action that occurs, the pace is slow and meandering. Sparse. The author has a nice turn of phrase and at times his descriptions are quite evocative. A couple of my favorites:

“His eyes were hard and cold as January ice, and that image was strengthened by the white hair that sprayed from beneath the old man's hat like wisps of snow drifting ahead of Montana winds.”

“When he spoke, his voice seemed broken, the words poking through his trepidation like bits of ice floating down a river.”

There are lots of characters, but no character is delved into too deeply. They mostly live poor, hardscrabble lives, and occasionally we are given a flashback about a particular character. But we don't get to know any of them very well or get very deeply into their heads. For me, that was a downside, as I love good character development. If characters are really well written and drawn out, the plot can be non-existent and I'm still happy.

Maybe westerns just aren't my style after all. Or maybe it was the preacher's similarity to Jesus. I'm not a religious person at all, despite the fact that I read and enjoy tons of Love Inspired books. The correlations of the story to that of Jesus may be better appreciated by readers more familiar with and invested in religion than I am. Unfortunately my attention sometimes wavered and the book just didn't speak to me.