Kindred Spirits

April 4, 2011
Strohmeyer's lackluster foray into more serious territory (after The Penny Pinchers Club) follows a group of four women who call themselves the "Ladies Society for the Conservation of Martinis" (cocktail recipes are indeed included) in a small Connecticut town. When society member Lynne succumbs to cancer, her three closest friends set out to fulfill her dying wish: to locate her estranged mother and the daughter she gave up for adoption when she was 18, and deliver letters to each containing her last words. The 40-something womenâBeth, her father ill and her marriage dull; Mary Kay, who has been lying to her fiancé about her biological baby-readiness; and Carol, who has left her husband to live a more independent lifeâspend much of the novel on a road trip in search of Lynne's past. Their friendships steady and solid, their emotional stakes never convincing, the women arouse little interest in the reader as they sip their way toward a happy conclusion. Strohmeyer's fans will miss her trademark humor, and readers of women's fiction will find nothing new in this bland tale.

May 15, 2011

Three women carry out the last wishes of their friend, discovering secrets, shedding inhibitions and inventing new martinis along the way.

To combat PTA pettiness, four friends, all residing in the idyllic lakeside town of Marshfield, Conn., are inspired by a musty cookbook, penned by a long-ago Marshfield clubwoman, to form the Ladies Society for the Conservation of Martinis. They bond over Cosmos, Blue Martinis and classic James Bond or Rat Pack concoctions while battling various crises in their lives. Now, though, the crises have the upper hand. Carol precipitously left her husband Jeff to resume her legal career in New York City, resulting in an ill-considered divorce. Now her ex-husband is insisting on selling their Marshfield house, and Carol's daughter Amanda is not speaking to her. Mary Kay, who raised her orphaned niece Tiffany as her own, has been concealing her infertility from her live-in partner and soon-to-be fiancé, Drake. Beth is juggling her ailing elderly father's health issues with no assistance, only criticism, from a controlling out-of-town sister. Worst of all, the society's founder, Lynne, has run out of options in her battle against cancer. Employing a combination of Blue Martinis and morphine, she commits suicide, leaving a letter for her friends to find. That letter instructs them to look for the daughter that, as a teenager in Pennsylvania, Lynne had been forced to give up for adoption. The women track down Lynne's mother and aunt, and thanks to Beth's skills as a librarian, turn up a crucial clue that Lynne herself had withheld. As they zero in on their quarry, spreading unwelcome news all over Pennsylvania, the women have plenty of opportunity to indulge in all manner of martinis (recipes included). The lighthearted conventions of the midlife girl-power road trip (no driving while intoxicated depicted) often clash with the downright depressing subject matter, as the myriad ways in which parents, spouses and children can become estranged are picked apart. 

A hackneyed concept which gains little in this tepid treatment.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

June 1, 2011

Best friends Mary Kay, Beth, and Carol, mourning the loss of a fourth friend, embark on a journey to fulfill Lynne's last wishes, and the trip is a catalyst for change in their own lives. Living in a small Connecticut town, the four had bonded through PTA meetings and a love of martinis. When Lynne dies after battling cancer, the others discover that she had kept a big secret from them and that she has left instructions for them to make right for her in death what she could never do in life. VERDICT This novel is sure to be popular with Strohmeyer's (The Cinderella Pact) many fans as well as women's fiction readers who enjoy Emily Giffin, Kristin Hannah, and Jodi Picoult. An engaging story of love and loss and the power of women's friendships, but beach readers, beware--you may find some tears mixed with the sand on your beach towel. [For another novel exploring similar themes, see Erica Bauermeister's Joy for Beginners, reviewed on p. 88.--Ed.]--Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2011
When their beloved friend Lynne loses her battle with cancer, the other members of the Ladies Society for the Conservation of Martinis must fulfill her dying wish to find the daughter she gave up for adoption 30 years ago. Armed with martini fixings and letters for Lynne's estranged mother and secret daughter, Mary Kay, Beth, and Carol set out on a road trip to Lynne's hometown. Facing Lynne's unfinished business forces them to face their own. Beth and her husband have always put their family and community first, stifling their wanderlust. Carol left her husband and returned to a law career in New York, but a year later she misses him and can't connect with her college-age daughter. Mary Kay is mulling over a long-awaited marriage proposal, but she's hiding something that may jeopardize her future. Strohmeyer (The Penny Pinchers Club, 2009) offers a sweet, uncomplicated, and touching work of women's fiction about friendship and forgiveness.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)