Sunday 19 June 2016

Diane Chamberlain: Her mother's shadow

Lacey O'Neill's stability is threatened when she is named guardian of her childhood best friend's 11-year-old daughter. Mackenzie is justifiably angry that her young mother was killed by a drunk driver, and that she is forced to leave everyone she has ever known to live with a virtual stranger. In the midst of all these conflicts Lacey is also juggling two men: bad-boy Bobby who took her virginity at age 14 and then spent the summer with her best friend, and Rick, an extremely attractive law professor who is visiting the Outer Banks while working on a book. On top of all this, the man who murdered her mother is up for parole and Lacey's victim statement may affect the decision.

The story reminds a little of the moral dilemmas that Jodi Picoult is so famous for, but somehow the ending is a little bit of a disappointment. Reality is not always as easily resolved as this story makes believe, and that is a shame.

Sunday 12 June 2016

Muriel Bolger: The Pink Pepper Tree

June is refusing to attend her husband Lorcan's funeral and everyone around her is wondering why. Her reasons for not attending will remain her secret. But she has other secrets, too, secrets she shared with her ex-partner Peter, who she once thought of as the love of her life. Now she can't stop thinking about Peter and wonders what might have been. A chance meeting reveals to June that maybe fate is giving her a second chance.

This is a swift and relaxing read. It is a quite predictable, but the kind of summer and beach-read we all need to escape from the realities of our own lives.