Just Jennifer

The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon (William Morrow, January 2013)

In 1985, the residents of Brighton Falls, Connecticut were living in fear of Neptune, a serial killer who delivered the hands of his most recent kidnapped victim to the police station only to pose the dead woman’s body in a public place a few days later.  Thirteen-year-old Reggie is having a hard enough time between being the child of a single mother who has more interest in drinking and men than her daughter, dealing with being an outcast in school and navigating her friendship with Charlie, a detective’s son and Tara, a goth who never really lets Reggie in.  Now her mother Vera has been kidnapped and her hand has turned up at the police station, but her body is never found and Neptune stops kidnapping women.  As soon as she was able, Reggie left her home town and is now living in Vermont, a successful architect who specializes in sustainable structures.  She has lost touch almost completely with anyone from her home town, including her aunt, and has a hard time forming close relationships.  She couldn't be more surprised when she gets a call from her aunt that Vera has been found in a homeless shelter and is in a hospital in Connecticut.  Knowing it’s the right thing to do, even though she does not want to revisit her past, Reggie travels to Connecticut where she takes her mother out of the hospital and back to the house where Vera and her sister grew up.  Before she is able to sort things through, Reggie is confronted with her past head on the many ghosts and secrets she kept hidden for so long.  She knows that Neptune is still alive and watching everything and knows that she must put aside her fears to uncover his secrets before he kills again.  Jennifer McMahon deftly weaves a story that flashes back to 1985 with Reggie and Vera’s reunion and recovery.  She slowly reveals things, allowing glimpses of the truth, keeping readers off balance until the very end.  This novel easily combines a suspenseful story line with characters that readers will come to sympathize and empathize with as they face past and present demons.

Just Jennifer

Truth in Advertising by John Kenney (Touchstone, January 2013)

Finbar Dolan looks to have it all: he has left his blue-collared life in Boston behind, landed a job with a Madison Avenue ad agency and has a big account with a diaper company. As he approaches 40, he realizes his life is a mess: he is all but estranged from his large Irish family, he recently called off his wedding, he really doesn’t love his job and can’t get himself to take a vacation, and he doesn't want the stress over Christmas of creating, producing and editing a multi-million dollar Super Bowl commercial.  A call from his older brother Ed telling Fin their father, an abusive man who left their family when Fin was a young teenager, is dying and neither Ed, nor Fin’s sister or other brother, plan on visiting him.  Not sure why, Fin finds himself heading to New England to see his father one last time, and in doing so, finds the time and peace of mind to reevaluate where his life is, where he has been and where it is going and where he would want it to be going (with co-worker Phoebe if he’s honest with himself).  Fin is a character to empathize with, at times be angry at, but cheer for the entire way.  Told with a certain amount of self-deprecating humor and honesty, Truth in Advertising introduces a new, welcomed voice in fiction.

Just Jennifer

There Was an Old Woman by Hallie Ephron (William Morrow, April 2013)

Evie Ferrante is working on an exhibit for the Five- Boroughs Historical Society, Seared in Memory, which will include the engine of the plane that crashed into the Empire State Building on a Saturday in 1945, when she receives a message from her sister Ginger about their mother.  Evie and Ginger’s mother, a heavy drinker for most of their lives, lives in a small community in the Bronx, Higgs Point, and, they are not surprised to learn, has been living in squalor.  Ginger flatly refuses to deal with their mother and demands Evie take her turn.  Evie reluctantly turns the finishing up of her exhibit to her assistant and travels to the Bronx where she finds her mother’s home in deplorable condition.  The neighborhood has not change a lot from when Evie grew up there, and she runs into Finn Ryan, running his father’s neighborhood store, who is now working with a group to preserve the Soundview Watershed.  As Evie begins to clean her mother’s home, she learns that there have been some disturbing events in the neighborhood recently, and that her mother’s last words to her neighbor before the EMTs took her away were “Don’t let him in until I’m gone.” something that makes any sense to neither woman.  The more time Evie spends in Higgs Point, the more she realizes there is something sinister occurring, something that brings back memories from her childhood that she has pushed deep down and something from which she is afraid she will not be able to escape.  There Was an Old Woman draws readers into Evie’s story little by little until they are caught up in the suspense and deception found in quiet Higgs Point.

Just Jennifer

Always Watching by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin’s Press, June 2013)

Dr. Nadine Lavoie helped Annie O’Sullivan after she was kidnapped, raped and tortured (in Still Missing); she guided Sara Gallagher as she came to terms with the fact that her biological father was a serial killer who had hunted women for more than thirty years and might be coming after Sara (in Never Knowing).  Now, Nadine has to face the demons of not only her past, but her present, as she attends to Heather, a young woman who has attempted suicide several times, and has found herself in the Vancouver hospital where Nadine now practices.  Heather and her husband Daniel mention that once they left the commune they were living in after Heather miscarried, Heather started on a downward slide.  Nadine realizes that the community in which Daniel and Heather were living had its roots in a commune Nadine lived in as a pre-teenager with her mother and older brother, one of which Nadine has few memories, but suspects may have contributed to her claustrophobia and feelings of terror each time she hears the name Aaron Quinn.  Nadine begins searching not only for answers for Heather, but for herself, hoping to finally heal her demons.  At the same time, Nadine, a recent widow, is searching the streets of Vancouver for her daughter Lisa who is fighting demons of her own, including a drug problem, some of which Nadine is not even aware of.  Coming to terms with your past is hard enough, but when Nadine realizes the mistakes she made that are costing her present with Lisa, she becomes even more determined to learn what happened at the camp and stop the members from ever doing these things again.  A tightly written novel, Chevy Stevens explores the story behind Dr. Nadine Lavoie and shifts it to the fore front bringing to it the same suspense she captured telling the stories of Nadine’s patients.

Just Jennifer

All You Could Ask For by Mike Greenberg (William Morrow, April 2013)

Mike Greenberg, the ESPN King of Guy Talk and host of Mike and Mike, has written his first novel from the point of view of not one woman, but three, and has done remarkably well capturing the sensibilities of a woman.  Samantha tends towards being an extreme athlete and is a very independent woman until she falls in love and has a whirlwind courtship with the man Daddy tells her is the wrong guy.  Guess what?  Daddy is always right.  Brooke is the happily married mother of twins, is wildly in love with her husband and has plans to rock his world with the gift she has chosen for his fortieth birthday; instead, he turns the tables on her making a request that rocks her world in a much different way.  Katherine appears to have everything: a corner office, Upper East Side apartment, South Hampton home, an assistant, a driver, but there is one thing always out of her reach: the companionship and friendship of another human.  These seemingly disparate women share two things in common: Greenwich, Connecticut and something that proves to be life altering for all of them and brings them together to form uncommon bonds.  A very well written first novel with three characters to care about and root for, to laugh with and to cry with.  

Just Jennifer

Saturday Night Widows by Becky Aikman (Crown, January 2013)

New York Newsday writer Becky Aikman found herself widowed at the age of forty-four when her husband died after a four-year battle with cancer.  Bernie was also a writer, someone with whom Becky shared not only her personal life, but her professional life, and is now not sure how to live her life and deal with her sadness and grief.  Traditional support groups do not work for Becky as many of the women are older and demonstrate a lot of anger toward Becky who is looking how to move on, not forgetting her husband, but living the rest of her life.  Becky assembles a group of women between the ages of forty and fifty-seven who have all recently lost their husbands: some to illness, one to suicide, one from the effects of alcoholism, but all unexpectedly; some of them have young children, some older children, some none, but all are interested in grieving their losses and living their lives as strong, independent women, and possibly finding a new person with whom to share the next part of their life, now, navigating the minefields that come with an older relationship, children, jobs and lives in other areas.  Through dinners together, a spa weekend, a lingerie shopping spree and finally a trip to Morocco, these strangers form a unique bond, laugh, cry and heal.  Becky Aikman tells her story, and those of her newly found friends, with humor and frankness as she navigates grief, which she learns does not necessarily come in nice neat stages, and offers support and hope for anyone dealing with life altering changes.

Just Jennifer

The Truth About Love and Lightning by Susan McBride (William Morrow, February 2013)

Gretchen Brink’s mother was honest to a fault when Gretchen was growing up.  Gretchen, who saw the results of such honesty first hand has told a few lies in her life to save the feelings of others, but there was one lie in particular that she has kept telling for almost forty years that is about to come back and make her confront it head on.  Gretchen, who was a single mother, is living in the house that belonged to the family of her daughter Abby’s father, Sam, with her twin sisters who are blind.  Sam never met Abby, going on a missionary trip to Africa just after Gretchen learned she was pregnant and never returning.  Now, after a devastating tornado, a man with amnesia falls back into Gretchen’s life, a man she is sure is her long-lost Sam.  At the same time, Abby shows up on Gretchen’s doorstep, running away from her boyfriend Nate in Chicago, announcing that she is pregnant.  As Gretchen and Abby get to know each other again, and as Gretchen tries to help the strange man discover who he is, without projecting too much Sam on to him just in case, secrets from the past begin to emerge, secrets that have roots before Gretchen and Sam, secrets that will either bind the three together or tear them apart forever.  With an eye toward detail, Susan McBride writes a story that you won’t want to end with characters you won’t want to leave.  It is a story about family, loving them and forgiving them, and ourselves, loving ourselves and forgiving ourselves, how we live with the truth and how we live with the lies we tell, and where reality is found between the two.