Family Pictures

January 1, 2013
Sylvie thought she had already experienced the worst that life could deal her: After her husband died, leaving her to raise Eve alone, what more could happen? Years later, Sylvie has a good life. Her daughter Eve will head off to college soon, and her second husband, Mark, may be ready to settle down into a sales manager position. While life with Jonathan brimmed with the glow of young love, life with Mark rings with a secure love. Maybe it's Mark's traveling that has kept their love life sparking after 11 years--years that have seen other marriages fail. Yet all is not well, not well at all, in Eve's life. Struggling to hide her worsening eating disorder, not to mention her secret second Facebook account, Eve's once-close relationship with Sylvie is deteriorating. One fateful weekend, Eve goes to an all-girls party in New York City, where she meets a kindred spirit, Grace, and the two girls swiftly abandon the others to their partying. Grace takes Eve home, where she meets Chris, Grace's older brother, who is instantly attracted to her. Grace's mother, Maggie, is a perfectionist (even her husband calls her the General), who has adopted a posh accent and posted rules throughout the opulent house. And it is there, in Maggie's lovely Connecticut home, that Eve sees a photograph that will ruin two families. Riddled with coincidences and unlikely secrets, Green's (Another Piece of My Heart, 2012, etc.) latest still manages to explore complex family dynamics with warmth. An inverted fairy tale in which the happily-ever-after occurs without the prince.

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February 1, 2013

Told in alternating points of view, Green's (Another Piece of My Heart) latest novel is all about family secrets. The first section introduces Sylvie's, as she deals with her ill, demanding mother, her daughter Eve's developing anorexia, and her husband's prolonged work trips. Eve tells her side of the story as well. She feels uncertain about her future and uses her eating as a way to feel in control. The next section shifts to Maggie who lives on the other side of the country. She also has a daughter, Grace, who is about the same age as Eve. Maggie is a society wife, but she sedulously hides her humble origins. When Eve meets Grace through a mutual friend in New York, a life-changing secret is revealed. Suddenly the two families' stories become intertwined in a most unnerving way. Sylvie and Maggie must discover and draw on their own strengths to save themselves and keep their families intact. VERDICT This gripping story is ultimately one of redemption. Green's many fans won't be disappointed, and this would an excellent choice for readers who enjoy the fiction of Jennifer Weiner or Marian Keyes. [See Prepub Alert, 9/12/12.]--Kristen Stewart, Pearland Lib., Brazoria Cty. Lib. System, TX

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2013
Two women with even more in common than troubled daughters anchor Green's latest offering. Widowed in her twenties, Sylvie Haydn raised her daughter, Eve, on her own until handsome businessman Mark Hathaway walked into her life and swept her off her feet. Mark becomes not only an adoring husband to Sylvie but also a doting father to Eve. For Sylvie, his only flaw is how often he travels for business, leading her to worry that he might be having an affair. When Eve travels to New York with a friend for a college visit, she discovers Mark's secret is even more startling: he has another family. The revelation of Mark's perfidy shakes not only Sylvie and Eve to the core but also his other familywife Maggie, an unhappy socialite, and their three children. Readers might wish Green had focused a little less on the buildup to the less-than-shocking reveal and more on the aftermath and the unexpected bonds formed in the wake of the dissolution of two families. Nonetheless, it's still an absorbing read with a gratifying conclusion. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Green's latest will be launched with a 150,000-print run, author appearances, and a multimedia national publicity blitz.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)