Flirting with Pete : A Novel (Hardcover)

by Barbara Delinsky (Author) "The memorial service was held in a dark stone church on Boston's Marlboro Street, not far from where Cornelius Unger had lived and worked..." (more)
Key Phrases: Beacon Hill, Connie Unger, Reverend Putty (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Cassandra (Casey) Ellis, 34, a single, successful psychotherapist, is the newest of this prolific writer's heroines. The novel opens with a memorial service for Dr. Cornelius Unger, a brilliant and reclusive psychologist who is also Casey's father. She never knew him personally, since she was the product of her mother's single encounter with Unger, and is shocked to learn that Dr. Unger has left her a $3 million townhouse on Boston's Beacon Hill, complete with a maid, Meg, and a gardener, Jordan. Casey has always felt hostile toward her famous, mysterious father, even though her mother never expressed any anger. She's uneasy at first about living in a luxurious house haunted by her father's presence, but soon finds its meticulously attended gardens a source of relief from professional stress and the emotional turmoil of caring for her mother, left comatose after a recent accident. Moreover, she is attracted to handsome, virile Jordan. While she's rooting through Dr. Unger's personal papers, she comes across the story of Jenny Clyde, a young woman in her 20s who was abused by her father for years before being rescued by a police officer. Casey becomes intrigued: is this incestuous relationship fiction or one of Dr. Unger's case histories? Why did her father leave it for her to find? Delinsky (The Woman Next Door, etc.) weaves Jenny's story through the novel, and meshes her and Casey's fates in a melodramatic climax. Both stories have some lapses in credibility and underdeveloped supporting characters (Meg is particularly weak), but the plot is more sophisticated and fast-moving than some of Delinsky's earlier work. It will satisfy her fans and may even win her some new readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Casey Ellis has spent her life longing for the father she never knew. Jenny Clyde has spent hers loathing the father she knew all too well. Casey's father is a noteworthy psychologist named Cornelius Unger; Jenny's is a notorious prisoner, Darden Clyde. When Unger dies, he bequeaths Casey more than just his luxurious Beacon Hill townhouse; she also inherits his cook, gardener, and random segments of Jenny's disturbing diary, a bewildering chronicle written prior to Jenny's mysterious disappearance in the company of a shadowy young man known only as Pete. Darden is about to be released from prison for the murder of Jenny's mother, and his imminent arrival permeates Jenny's abject account of her life spent in fear of his psychological and sexual abuse. Hoping to solve the puzzling connection between this tortured young woman and her enigmatic father, Casey follows the journal's tantalizing clues in search of not only Jenny's identity and whereabouts but also her own familial relationships. Fantasy battles reality in Delinsky's emotive novel of discovery and denial, love and liberation. Seamlessly and compassionately weaving Jenny's unsettling past with Casey's uncertain future, Delinsky delivers a scintillating study of each woman's search for answers and absolution. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (June 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074324642X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743246422
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,016,185 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barbara Delinsky outdoes herself this time!, September 2, 2003

By	pisces (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Everything you love about Barabara Delinsky's writing is here in her latest novel, plus some bonuses. This is the first time, well, since "A Woman Next Door," that she has written something you cannot put down. There is suspense, mystery, complex emotional issues, right to life issues, small towns, incest, child molestation, ghosts, suicide, aging parents, grief, etc.. plus much, much more. And, all these themes are tied together beautifully.

I rarely give Delinsky 5 stars, but I can see "Flirting With Pete" is a first-rate effort. It really is one of Delinsky's best, if not the best she has ever written.

Was there anything I didn't like? I think she gets a little too technical with the medical stuff. An author needs to make sure a novel isn't coming off like a textbook in explanation. However, I am interested in medical stuff, and nature/gardening, so it wasn't that boring for me. That's the problem: if the subject is maple syrup, or apple cider making, and you couldn't care in the least, then getting too technical is a problem.

But, here, the whole gardening/flowers aspect of this novel works because there is a sense of nature that parallels the gripping plot. I really got a strong sense of the sprawling three-tiered garden setting, and the multi-level Beacon Hill townhouse that much of this story takes place in. Delinsky's characterization and insight into her characters moods and feelings is so nuanced and precise, I felt like the characters were in the room with me.

I did, however, think the cover was a bit too much and gimmicky. But, so what? I don't rate based on a cover and I couldn't care less what's on the jacket. What matters is what's between the covers, and Delinsky has absolutely outdone herself on this novel.

One thing that Delinsky does right is to throw in her twists all throughout this novel--unlike some authors (Nicholas Sparks) who make you wait until the very end until the payoff. Delinsky throws in a series of payoffs all throughout her novel, giving the reader some immediate satisfaction, as well as hooking the reader early-on. I'm serious, once you get to the final eight chapters, you will absolutely not be able to put this one down, and I'm usually a slow reader and like to pace myself, but I easily had this done in less than a week.

Anyone who liked Delinsky's "Three Wishes" is sure to like "Flirting With Pete". Also Delinsky's writing is as good as Anita Shreve's and similar in tone to the writing in Anita Shreve's "The Last Time They Met" and Anita Shreve's "The Weight of Water". All of those novels had two parallel stories going on which rapidly careen, collide, and intersect in gripping plot twists. Delinsky brilliantly uses foreshadowing ala Anita Shreve, and creates a sense of urgency in the plots, all done through character, making this effort of Barbara Delinsky's so much more than a "romance". I think Delinsky has proven herself, with "Flirting With Pete," to be one of the most accomplished mainstream writers, right up there with the best of fiction writers such as Anita Shreve and Richard Russo(Empire Falls).

I've read at least 12 or 13 different novels by Barbara Delinsky, and this is unlike anything I've ever come across from her. Bravo!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece you don't want to miss., March 20, 2005

By	Cynthia S. Hood (Watauga, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Flirting with Pete: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

I consider myself a 'book snob'. I demand a solid story, great writing, characters who hold my affection and attention, a plot that goes somewhere in a somewhat forward manner and a writer who keeps me entertained. Barbara Delinsky is that and more. I consider this a masterpiece.

"Flirting with Pete" sounded fun and somewhat interesting so I picked it up and was surprised when I found myself reading it at 3 am on three different mornings. I didn't want to go to sleep.

She weaves several stories together so flawlessly that you're able to live through all of the characters. She takes a subject that's been "done" and redoes it in a way that you can go through it without wanting to take Prozac and call in to work for a week.

This is not a book about victims or survivors, it's a story about life that is so beautifully told you will never forget it. I love the fact that she unfolds the story slowly and switches back and forth so that you're not overwhelmed by sorrow or that you feel badly throughout the book.

It's a wonderful story about "making it" through life and coming out the other side - no matter what obstacles are faced. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN ASSURED READING, July 21, 2003

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Flirting with Pete (Audio Cassette)

Popular voice artist Linda Emond gives an assured reading of Barbara Delinsky's latest heart-tugging tale in which the lives of two women seeking answers are interwoven.

Casey Ellis is a successful young professional woman who has always sought to know her father, famous psychologist Cornelius Unger. Her birth was the result of an almost passing relationship between her mother and the father she has never known. Now, her mother lies comatose, the result of an accident, and her father has died. Surprisingly, he generously remembers Casey in his will, leaving her an elegant townhouse on exclusive Beacon Hill. Not only is the townhouse luxurious, it also comes with a full staff.

Shortly after taking possession of her new home Casey comes across a puzzling journal among her father's papers. It was written by a young woman, Jenny Clyde, who detested her father, a man in prison for killing Jenny's mother. He will soon be released and Jenny fears further abuse from him.

The journal and the story it tells baffle Casey. Is it a true account or fiction? And, very importantly, what does it tell her about the father she would like to know?

Of course, there's romance mixed with the mystery, which is always an irresistible combination.

- Gail Cooke