I Take You

Meet Lily Wilder, an up-and-coming NYC lawyer, a week before she's about to marry the love of her life, Will Field, a geeky archaeologist. In a soft voice, narrator Julia Whelan recounts Lily's various adventures, mostly sexual, as she struggles with the ideas of fidelity and marriage. Whelan differentiates the female characters using subtle accents and shifts in tone, and there are lots of women, including Lily's mother, three stepmothers, and a mother-in-law, as well as all Lily's friends. The men's voices are warm and sexy but poorly differentiated. Should Lily marry Will if she's still interested in sleeping with other people--lots of others? Whelan performs this madcap story of Lily's sexual escapades, relationships, and convoluted thoughts on marriage without missing a beat. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

March 2, 2015
Kennedy’s debut novel sparkles with candor and wit as one woman counts down the week before her wedding. Lily Wilder is working at a Manhattan law firm and planning her Key West wedding and a deposition there. Her fiance, Will, is an archaeologist, whom she truly loves. There’s just one problem—Lily believes that she is incapable of being faithful. She has repeatedly cheated on him during the time they have been together and continues to cheat while in the Keys in the days leading up to her wedding. She sees the relationships of her father with his ex-wives as foretelling her own issues with fidelity. Yet Lily doesn’t regret anything about her past behavior until her future mother-in-law threatens to reveal skeletons from Lily’s closet that could possibly destroy her relationship with Will and end her law career. Kennedy’s ribald story is both engaging and atypical, the perfect combination for a new voice in women’s fiction.