The Bottom Line: I can't say that it was my favorite, but it certainly sticks and jabs in the right places. The difference? THIS ends with 'happy ever after'.
kyhiera's Full Review: Jude Deveraux - The Summerhouse
Once again I’ve stumbled upon a book that strikes close to home.
I admit it, i've had a couple rough nights revisiting the pain of an old wound--well i'm shaking it off. I've too much to do to mourn for long... but my sob story can rival those of the three central characters in The Summerhouse…
It’s the New York City DMV, and three girls are here to renew licenses on the day of their 21st birthdays. The sneaky desk clerk sets them all aside and keeps them waiting for hours on end, but in that time period they form a friendship with one another.
Madison is gorgeous. A knockout from Montana sent to New York to embark on a modeling career. Having lost her Mother after a long bout with Cancer and her cheating boyfriend to some college bimbo, her ego has already taken a beating. She’s hoping this move will be a new start.
Leslie too is looking for her ‘start’. A dancer, she’s got a body other girls would pay for. Lithe and tall, she’s a perfectly built machine. To boot she’s spunky, fearless, and she’s just jilted her college fiancee to pursue dancing as a career.
Ellie is the narrator--an adorable, ‘Goldie Hawn type’. She’s here to become a famous painter. Having grown up with several brothers, she could care less about men right now—her focus is HER life, HER dreams.
Fast Forward
But all three women have man-trouble coming just around the corner. I won’t ruin the story of each one’s plight, but they, in their own ways, learn to put their own desires on hold in deference to the men they love. For the men who are supposed to love them in return. They go, in short, from being stars in their own right to being stuck on the sidelines; cheerleaders for the men. Their lives take hugely tragic turns which are recounted, in hindsight, when they reconvene on their 40th birthday. The physical changes at that time reflect the pain they suffered. No longer striking individuals, they are mere shadows of their former selves. Broken and worn and lacking the spark that made each one seem, as young adults, like they would take the world by storm. All hope for future happiness seems to have been lost.
The Fortune
Still, this is a book… anything can happen. Sometimes fantasy is the only way out of reality—and in the pages of this novel Jude Deveraux allows the girls to redesign their past.
Oh the things I would change if given the opportunity…the things many of us would alter—even if only just a tad. Certainly I’d give myself some lessons in self-esteem after my father’s death, something to help me avoid a tendency towards self-destruction!
True it’s a bit of a hokey idea, but after sympathizing with each woman, it’s hard to not root for them. Each is given the opportunity to return to any given point in their past and, with or without the knowledge of how their future really turned out, to start fresh.
So we get to see another flashback (which is also somewhat of a flash-forward). Now we can see which direction the women choose to move their lives in…
And in the end, each woman must decide whether she wants the ‘new’ past or the old. Each woman can choose whether they want to love the same person...or start a new path.
I must admit the story provokes thought. And it’s more than ‘what went wrong’ but how each woman allowed herself to accept the life that they had. What would you do? How would you change your consciousness to promote a better outcome? And, if you really could alter the past—would you WANT to?
Have you ever wanted to rewrite your past?Three best friends, all with the same birthday, are about to turn forty. Celebrating at a summerhouse in Mai...More at HotBookSale
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