From Publishers Weekly
Two sisters on opposite continents, separated by childhood tragedy, learn to reconcile their different lives in a likable novel that belongs in a beach bag. Upcher, a British-born writer who sets many of her books in the Hamptons, narrates from the perspectives of both sisters, raised apart after their mother's suicide. Forty years later older sister Grace having been adopted by a neighbor couple in Wales and infant Pat sent to her father in London Pat, now a mousy London housewife with two vociferous teenagers, decides to rent a vacation house in Wales with her husband Gus, who needs a rest from his locksmithing business. Serendipitously, Pat discovers their rental is her parents' old home. Living in the house in Wales sparks Pat's fascination with her long-lost sister, who turns out to be a successful romance novelist with a glitzy, globe-trotting lifestyle that barely masks her bitterness and anger at her father's long-ago abandonment. When Pat joins her husband on a business trip to New York, she and her rebellious teenage daughter, Mary, drop in on Grace's East Hampton home, a visit made all the more chaotic and awkward by Grace's complicated affair with a married man, Pat's burgeoning marital worries, and Mary's sudden announcement that she is pregnant. Despite the firestorm, Grace and Pat or "Favor," as Grace believes their mother meant to call her younger sister make a grudging connection that helps both women to untangle their past and their parents' complicated history. The resulting novel, though a little too dark for pure escapism, will appeal to Upcher fans and readers looking for something to tote along on the Hamptons Jitney.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.From Booklist
"Separated at birth" takes on new meaning in Upcher's tale of two sisters who grew up distanced by time, tragedy, and circumstances both beyond and within their control. The day five-year-old Grace's mother gave birth to her new baby sister, Grace walked out of the house, never to return, in a fit of childish jealousy with lifelong repercussions. Favor, as Grace always thought of her, never knew her sister nor the mother whom she believes died during childbirth. Raised solely by the father Grace rejected, Favor becomes obsessed with contacting her estranged sister after his death. Alternating between each woman's narrative of an unreconciled past that threatens to disrupt the present and destroy their future, Upcher presents a complex yet compelling story of family ties stretched nearly to the breaking point. Subplots of Grace's jet-setting lifestyle and sordid love affairs, and Favor's randy teenagers and long-suffering husband, support rather than sabotage this chronicle of familial love in all its many disguises. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
