Leaving Sophie Dean
Alexandra Whitaker
Grand Central/5 Spot, Mar 26 2012, $13.99
ISBN 9780446583947
At the Boston Back Bay café, Agatha Weatherby challenges her friend Valerie Hughes to give her married lover Adam Dean an ultimatum. She says he should be forced to choose between Valerie and his wife (and two very young kids (Matthew and Hugo)). Having no doubt that Adam wants her, Valerie accepts the dare. Just before a business trip, she informs her paramour he has forty-eight hours to decide who he wants.
Taken aback by the ultimatum and peeved with his wife, Adam informs Sophie he is leaving her for an older woman. Sophie, who is in the midst of a mid-life crisis, accepts his pronouncement but raises him two when she says she is leaving him and his mistress with their suburban house and the other two occupants. She moves into an apartment where her children visit after school and alternating weekends. Adam and Valerie are stunned by their respective new roles as the primary caretaker to his children as he never had that role before and she expected him to escort her in Bostonian high society instead of having a five years old lecturing her to quit smoking as that is unhealthy.
Leaving Sophie Dean is an intriguing family drama at a time when a marriage crumbles. The lead triangle and the key support cast (her BFF and the kids) are fully developed so that the audience knows what motivates each of them. However that also is two-edged weapon as readers will feel antipathy for the three prime adults for acting extremely selfish with no thoughts for the impact of their actions on the children.
Harriet Klausner
Alexandra Whitaker
Grand Central/5 Spot, Mar 26 2012, $13.99
ISBN 9780446583947
At the Boston Back Bay café, Agatha Weatherby challenges her friend Valerie Hughes to give her married lover Adam Dean an ultimatum. She says he should be forced to choose between Valerie and his wife (and two very young kids (Matthew and Hugo)). Having no doubt that Adam wants her, Valerie accepts the dare. Just before a business trip, she informs her paramour he has forty-eight hours to decide who he wants.
Taken aback by the ultimatum and peeved with his wife, Adam informs Sophie he is leaving her for an older woman. Sophie, who is in the midst of a mid-life crisis, accepts his pronouncement but raises him two when she says she is leaving him and his mistress with their suburban house and the other two occupants. She moves into an apartment where her children visit after school and alternating weekends. Adam and Valerie are stunned by their respective new roles as the primary caretaker to his children as he never had that role before and she expected him to escort her in Bostonian high society instead of having a five years old lecturing her to quit smoking as that is unhealthy.
Leaving Sophie Dean is an intriguing family drama at a time when a marriage crumbles. The lead triangle and the key support cast (her BFF and the kids) are fully developed so that the audience knows what motivates each of them. However that also is two-edged weapon as readers will feel antipathy for the three prime adults for acting extremely selfish with no thoughts for the impact of their actions on the children.
Harriet Klausner
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