Category Archives: Jane Green

Review: Sister Stardust by Jane Green

Title: Sister Stardust by Jane Green
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Genre: Historical (’60s), Fiction
Length: 311 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

In her first novel inspired by a true story, Jane Green re-imagines the life of troubled icon Talitha Getty in this transporting story from a forgotten chapter of the Swinging ’60s

From afar Talitha’s life seemed perfect. In her twenties, and already a famous model and actress, she moved from London to a palace in Marrakesh, with her husband Paul Getty, the famous oil heir. There she presided over a swirling ex-pat scene filled with music, art, free love and a counterculture taking root across the world.

When Claire arrives in London from her small town, she never expects to cross paths with a woman as magnetic as Talitha Getty. Yearning for the adventure and independence, she’s swept off to Marrakesh, where the two become kindred spirits. But beneath Talitha’s glamourous facade lurks a darkness few can understand. As their friendship blossoms and the two grow closer, the realities of Talitha’s precarious existence set off a chain of dangerous events that could alter Claire’s life forever.

Review:

Sister Stardust by Jane Green is a fictionalized novel that sweeps readers into the glamorous but tragic world of Talitha and J. Paul Getty Jr.

It is the late 60’s and Claire Collins dreams of leaving her small town behind for a glitzy life in London. Lucking into jobs in popular clothing stores, she meets a man whose involvement in the up-and-coming music scene leads to an unexpected meeting with Talitha Getty. Claire impetuously journeys to Morocco with a band that knows Talitha and she is soon living a wild and free life at the Getty’s home in Marrakesh. Claire’s drug-filled and free-love time with Talitha ends with tragedy but will their friendship endure?

Claire and her brother Robbie’s life after their mother’s untimely death is even more miserable after her father remarries. Neither want or need a stepmother and their homelife with their father’s cold new wife becomes untenable once they are of age. After a vicious row, Claire leaves for London where she is finally able to break free of her formerly staid life. She is definitely not expecting what awaits her in Marrakesh but she and Talitha become close friends.

Talitha and Paul split their time between Morocco and Rome. She is social butterfly who loves the parties while Paul would rather spend time alone. Morocco is her chance to indulge in her love of the limelight and she seizes every opportunity to entertain their friends. Talitha enjoys having Claire with her Marrakesh but are either of them prepared for what awaits them?

Sister Stardust is a captivating novel that vibrantly depicts the music scene and wild party vibe of the 1960s. Claire is an eager participant in her time in Marrakesh but is she fready for the crazy life that Talitha enjoys?  Talitha and Paul’s story arc is an accurate portrait of their marriage and decadent lifestyle in Marrakesh. The storyline easily captures the reader’s attention and tightly holds it until Jane Green brings the novel to a poignant conclusion.

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Filed under Fiction, Hanover Square Press, Historical, Historical (60s), Jane Green, Rated B+, Review, Sister Stardust

Review: The Friends We Keep by Jane Green

Title: The Friends We Keep by Jane Green
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

The Friends We Keep is the heartwarming and unforgettable new novel from Jane Green, the New York Times bestselling author of The Sunshine Sisters and The Beach House. 

Evvie, Maggie, and Topher have known one another since college. Their friendship was something they swore would last forever. Now years have passed, the friends have drifted apart, and they never found the lives they wanted—the lives they dreamed of when they were young and everything seemed possible.

Evvie starved herself to become a supermodel but derailed her career by sleeping with a married man.

Maggie married Ben, the boy she fell in love with in college, never imagining the heartbreak his drinking would cause.

Topher became a successful actor, but the shame of a childhood secret shut him off from real intimacy.

By their thirtieth reunion, these old friends have lost touch with one another and with the people they dreamed of becoming. Together again, they have a second chance at happiness…until a dark secret is revealed that changes everything.

The Friends We Keep is about how despite disappointments we’ve had or mistakes we’ve made, it’s never too late to find a place to call home.

Review:

The Friends We Keep by Jane Green is a compelling novel of friendship, secrets, betrayal and ultimately, forgiveness.

In 1986, Evvie Williams, Maggie Hallwell and Topher Winthrop form a life-long enduring friendship. Evvie is a half-Jamaican former child television star, Maggie is the beloved only daughter of a financially comfortable family and Topher is the only child of a wealthy family. Despite their disparate backgrounds, they are immediately inseparable during their university years.  Evvie is the only one of the group who must work to make ends meet and she becomes a bartender at a local pub.  Much to everyone’s surprise, Maggie falls for Evvie’s co-worker, whom the trio dubs “Evil Ben” since he does not talk or smile much. After graduation, the three friends go their separate ways but before Evvie leaves, she makes an unexpected choice that becomes the first of several secrets she keeps from Maggie and Topher.

Maggie is a caretaker who shows how much she loves people through cooking. Her unrequited crush on Ben Curran is her only unhappy memory during her University years. After graduation, Maggie moves to London and becomes a career woman but she secretly harbors hope she will marry a man who takes care of her. Much to her shock, Maggie’s path crosses with Ben and they eventually marry. Unfortunately, wedded bliss is elusive as they struggle to have children and Ben’s drinking spirals out of control. Maggie does everything in her power to help Ben and keep his alcoholism hidden but will she remain in their tumultuous marriage forever?

During University, Evvie discovers how to control her binge eating and after graduation, she is offered a modeling contract in New York.   Her career is wildly successful but her longtime pattern of choosing the wrong man continues to haunt her. Following her return to New York after attending Maggie and Ben’s wedding, Evvie eventually makes a fateful decision that forever changes her life and her friendship with Maggie and Topher. This secret haunts her and she does everything in her power to keep it under wraps, but will it remain hidden from the person it will hurt the most?

Topher also moves to New York following graduation where he pursues an acting career. A successful soap opera star, he is mostly content with his career path. Topher is wary of relationships but he eventually discovers happiness with two rather unconventional relationships.  It is not until nearly mid-life that Topher finally reveals a devastating childhood secret but will he take the necessary steps to completely heal from this traumatic event?

Spanning thirty years, The Friends We Keep is a poignant yet heartwarming novel of friendship.  Each of the characters are vividly developed and despite their flaws, they are immensely appealing.  The storyline is engrossing and follows Topher, Evvie and Maggie from their University friendship, their lives after graduation and their reconnection after their 30th university reunion.  Jane Green’s portrayal of their personal struggles and their enduring friendship is heartfelt and quite touching. An absolutely beautiful story that readers are sure to enjoy.

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Filed under Berkley, Contemporary, Jane Green, Rated B, Review, The Friends We Keep, Women's Fiction

Review: The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green

Title: The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 378 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

The New York Times bestselling author of Falling presents a warm, wise, and wonderfully vivid novel about a mother who asks her three estranged daughters to come home to help her end her life.

Ronni Sunshine left London for Hollywood to become a beautiful, charismatic star of the silver screen. But at home, she was a narcissistic, disinterested mother who alienated her three daughters.

As soon as possible, tomboy Nell fled her mother’s overbearing presence to work on a farm and find her own way in the world as a single mother. The target of her mother’s criticism, Meredith never felt good enough, thin enough, pretty enough. Her life took her to London—and into the arms of a man whom she may not even love. And Lizzy, the youngest, more like Ronni than any of them, seemed to have it easy, using her drive and ambition to build a culinary career to rival her mother’s fame, while her marriage crumbled around her.

But now the Sunshine sisters are together again, called home by Ronni, who has learned that she has a serious disease and needs her daughters to fulfill her final wishes. And though Nell, Meredith, and Lizzy have never been close, their mother’s illness draws them together to confront the old jealousies and secret fears that have threatened to tear these sisters apart. As they face the loss of their mother, they will discover if blood might be thicker than water after all…

Review:

The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green is an emotional family drama about a movie star and her dysfunctional relationship with her three daughters.

Ronni Sunshine never quite reached the pinnacle of stardom she hoped for and her quest for success and self-centered behavior took a huge toll on her marriage and daughters.  Her three daughters dealt with her volatile behavior in very different ways. Oldest daughter Nell is indifferent to her mother’s rage-filled diatribes and she shuts down when faced with conflict. Middle child Meredith is a people pleaser with extremely low self-worth due to her mother’s cutting remarks about her appearance and weight. Youngest daughter Lizzy is spoiled, selfish and acts without considering how her choices affect others. The three girls left home as soon as possible and over the years they have grown estranged from their mother and each other.  Living completely separate lives with little interaction with one another, Nell, Meredith and Lizzy come together at Ronni’s request but is it too late to repair their fractured relationships?

Nell found solace working on a farm not too far from her family’s home and after becoming a single mom at a young age, she devoted her life to her son.  Content to raise her son on her own while running the farm, she never really thinks too much about her lack of companionship.  After her son goes off to college then grad school, Nell is finally ready to begin dating but has the time for romance passed her by?

Meredith calls England home and despite the distance between her and Ronni, she still lacks confidence and turns to food for comfort. Now an accountant, she is engaged to a handsome, successful man that no one in her family cares for.  Meredith is not exactly thrilled with how he controls nearly every aspect of her life, but her insecurities make it impossible for her stand up for herself. The trip back home is fraught with tension but Meredith is enjoying the freedom to express herself without her overbearing fiancé by her side.  When faced with the prospect of returning to her regular life, will Meredith be able to go back to a life that no longer feels right?

Lizzy has a wildly successful career as a chef but her selfish and thoughtless choices might destroy her marriage.  She is impulsive but well-liked and respected by the people who work for her. Never having dealt with the consequences of her actions, is it too late for Lizzy to repair the mistakes she has made?

The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green is an engrossing novel of forgiveness, healing and redemption. Ronni’s decision to bring her daughters to her side is not exactly selfless, but the reunion does provide Nell, Meredith and Lizzy the opportunity to reconnect and move past some of their emotional wounds. The storyline is bit predictable, but the growth of the characters is quite satisfying. An overall entertaining read with emotional depth that fans of the genre will enjoy.

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Filed under Berkley, Contemporary, Jane Green, Rated B, Review, The Sunshine Sisters, Women's Fiction

Review: Summer Secrets by Jane Green

summer secretsTitle: Summer Secrets by Jane Green
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction
Length: 319 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

With Summer Secrets Jane Green has reached an even deeper level of emotion that will stay with you long after you turn the last page…

Living in London in her twenties, Cat had it all–a great job and wonderful friends. But with the good came the bad–a party every night, wreaking havoc, and blackouts. When she discovers the father she never knew she had, living in Nantucket, it sends her into a spiral, costing her the new family she had desperately craved. The drinking had always been a constant evil in Cat’s life. Now in her late thirties, sober, divorced from the love of her life, and trying to make up for lost time with her teenage daughter, she’s ready to make amends to those she has hurt. But facing the past and the unthinkable act she committed one summer night could change the course of her life forever.

Review:

Summer Secrets by Jane Green is an emotionally compelling and heartrending novel about one woman’s battle to get sober.

Catherine “Cat” Coombs love affair with alcohol began when she was a teenager and did not end until she hit rock bottom in her forties. The years in between were a blur of hangovers, blackouts, bad parenting and horrendous drunken decisions. In her twenties, Cat makes her first real attempt at sobriety after meeting Jason Halliwell, another recovering alcoholic, but unfortunately, she is more interested in a romantic relationship with Jason than sobriety. When her mother reveals shocking information about her father, Cat makes a trip to Nantucket to meet her family and her journey ends rather abruptly when she commits a spectacular (and unforgivable) betrayal. After this latest shameful fall from grace, Cat spends several years sobering up only to fall off the wagon again and again. Fast forward to her forties when she finally hits rock bottom after her husband divorces her and wins custody of their thirteen year daughter, Annie, and she finally sobers up for the right reason: herself. She has been doing the heavy lifting necessary to maintain her sobriety when Cat, at long last, must make amends to the two people she has been avoiding: her sisters.

Cat is, in so many ways, a typical addict. She lies to herself, her friends and her family about her drinking. She is marginally aware that she drinks more than her friends and she is fully convinced she can quit drinking anytime she wants. And she does. But only long enough to “prove” to herself and others that she is firmly in control of her drinking. However, as anyone who has ever been touch by addiction knows, Cat is an alcoholic (albeit a functioning one) and she is nowhere close to being in control of her drinking.

When Cat is in her late twenties, as she sees her friends moving on from partying as they settle down, marry and have children, she knows she is being left behind, but she is powerless to move forward. After meeting Jason, she makes her first real attempt at gaining sobriety, but she is only going through the motions of going to meetings with him. She does cut back on her drinking, but she does not give it up completely, nor does she really believe what she hears at AA meetings.

Despite Jason’s warnings not to travel to Nantucket until she is further along in the program, Cat is convinced she can handle meeting her father and half-sisters without ruining the visit with her drunken antics. However, once she arrives, she easily convinces herself that she can continue socially drinking with the rest of her family and initially, she manages to limit how much she drinks. But in actuality, Cat is a disaster in waiting and one night, she blacks out and when she wakes up the next morning, her life begins a downward spiral that does not end until her divorce several years later.

It is very easy to feel all of the raw emotion that Cat experiences and her shame and disgust at her behavior practically leaps off the pages. Equally apparent is Cat’s loneliness and despair over her failed marriage but at this point in her recovery, she is unflinchingly honest that her drinking is to blame for her divorce. Her unrelenting pain over the loss of her husband is utterly heartbreaking as is her persistent hope that he will give her another chance. This sorrow is perfectly balanced by the surprising welcome and forgiveness Cat finds in Nantucket but her reconciliation with her sisters is marred by lies and a distressing act of revenge.

With Summer Secrets, Jane Green presents an remarkably honest portrait of addiction. The devastating effects alcoholism are realistically presented in such a way that it is easy to empathize with Cat and her long journey to sobriety. Although it is not a light-hearted read, Summer Secrets is a riveting novel of hope and redemption and it is one that I highly recommend.

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Filed under Contemporary, Fiction, Jane Green, Rated B+, Review, Summer Secrets

Review: Saving Grace by Jane Green

saving graceTitle: Saving Grace by Jane Green
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction
Length: 353 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Grace and Ted Chapman are widely regarded as the perfect literary power couple. Ted is a successful novelist and Grace, his wife of twenty years, is beautiful, stylish, carefree, and a wonderful homemaker. But what no one sees, what is churning under the surface, is Ted’s rages. His mood swings. And the precarious house of cards that their lifestyle is built upon. When Ted’s longtime assistant and mainstay leaves, the house of cards begins to crumble and Grace, with dark secrets in her past, is most vulnerable. She finds herself in need of help but with no one to turn to…until the perfect new assistant shows up out of the blue. To the rescue comes Beth, a competent young woman who can handle Ted and has the calm efficiency to weather the storms that threaten to engulf the Chapman household. Soon, though, it’s clear to Grace that Beth might be too good to be true. This new interloper might be the biggest threat of all, one that could cost Grace her marriage, her reputation, and even her sanity. With everything at stake and no one to confide in, Grace must find a way to save herself before it is too late.

Powerful and riveting, Jane Green’s Saving Grace will have you on the edge of your seat as you follow Grace on her harrowing journey to rock bottom and back.

The Review:

Saving Grace by Jane Green is a thoroughly compelling novel that touches on a few relevant social issues. While not exactly a mystery, there are definitely suspense elements to storyline. Overall, I found it to be an intriguing psychological drama that is poignant and thought-provoking.

Grace and Ted Chapman have been married for twenty-five years and from the outside, their life looks perfect. Ted is a long time best-selling author while Grace is a successful chef and board member of a charity. However, behind closed doors, Grace walks on eggshells around her volatile and egotistical husband. When Ted’s personal assistant resigns, Grace finds it impossible to juggle the household chores with her career and the full-time job of placating her demanding husband. Needing a new assistant as soon as possible, Grace hurriedly hires Beth for the position and the Chapman household is running smoother than ever. Although Beth is soon indispensable to both Grace and Ted, something about Beth feels a little off to Grace. But before she can figure out what is bothering her about Beth, Grace’s life begins to spiral out of control.

At first, Grace is an exasperating and somewhat unsympathetic heroine. She is a bit of a doormat and the way she lets Ted treat her is very frustrating. Her kneejerk reaction to his mood swings has its roots in her childhood and she has never broken out of this dysfunctional pattern. While it seems implausible that she would grant Beth such easy access into every facet of their lives, Grace is so unorganized and overwhelmed that it is easy to believe she would be so trusting. And when Grace’s worst fears seem to be coming true, her insecurities and unresolved issues cause her to doubt herself and her instincts.

Ted is a completely unlikable character and despite Grace’s efforts to justify his behavior, there really is no excuse for how he treats everyone around him. He is very egocentric and this makes him an easy target for manipulation. Ted thoroughly falls under Beth’s spell, and he blindly follows wherever she leads him.

Beth’s plan is insidious and she exploits every weakness she can. It is unclear exactly what she hopes to gain for much of the story, but she seamlessly works her way into Grace’s life and then slowly and methodically undermines her self confidence. Once Grace is at her weakest, Beth plants seeds of doubt that quickly take root, leaving Grace vulnerable and at the mercy of the medical profession.

Saving Grace is written mostly in first person from Grace’s point of view. Her past is revealed through flashbacks and the shifts from past to present are easy to follow. The situation with Beth eventually makes Grace a somewhat unreliable narrator but this is an effective means of conveying her confusion and increasing desperation. There is also a bit of contradiction in her recounting of events yet this also lends credibility to her worsening mental state.

While Saving Grace is a little bit of a slow starter, it does not take long to become fully invested in the unfolding story. Grace turns into a likable character that is easy to root for and she does emerge from her ordeal a much stronger person. Jane Green does an excellent job portraying the very real danger of how easy it is to misdiagnose and overmedicate patients. All in all, it is a very fascinating story that has a realistic and mostly satisfying conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Fiction, Jane Green, Rated B+, Review, Saving Grace, St Martin's Press