After firing up her stereo, she popped in a Pretenders cassette and set it to a reasonable volume. Perfect. She sank onto the couch with a soda, curving into the cushions for one heartbeat of absolute comfort. Then the music hit her the way it did sometimes. A year ago at a dingy little club, that was the last time she’d heard this song. It had been late, 3:00 a.m. maybe, and she’d been drunk in that end-of-the-night way, flirting with a guy who was way too young for her, because the only other alternative was paying the tab and heading home...She’d gone home alone, and she’d stood on her patio in the predawn quiet and smoked a cigarette while looking out at the whispering palms, and life had been so sweet.
Grinning with the high of being naughty—God, hadn’t she always loved that?—Donna danced over to the table and grabbed the crumpled pack from her purse. She stopped for a moment to crack the small kitchen window so she could hear the music outside, then she slipped out her door and around to the big tree...Her head fell back, and she stared up at the dark claws of the tree above, scratching restlessly at the navy sky. The music trickled out, weaving around her. She shivered with pleasure.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
...It was pitch dark beneath the tree, but the small window traced the faintest light over a silhouette, and Donna immediately identified her attacker. Elizabeth Abrams lurked two feet away, arms lifted from her body, fingers curled as if she meant to strike again, more forcefully this time. Donna stretched tall, and she felt her chin edging forward as she inflated herself for a brawl. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she shouted at the woman.
“I think I’m protecting a tiny baby that can’t protect itself! What right do you have to puff on some cancer stick and poison my defenseless grandchild?”
In a novel that moves from one character to another, readers become interested in two women--Donna and Lauren--who seem to have lived very different lives. Indeed they had, but only as the story moves forward do we actually see that there is a relationship. In fact it is a relationship between three women, all related by marriage...
Lauren begins the book as we find her coming back home... It is a beginning which will grab readers from the first sentence...
The heat of this place grew serial killers.
Not that everyone born here became a murderer, but the Sacramento area had more than its fair share.
Lauren Abrams had been raised with that truth, always aware of her own faint brush with darkness and destruction. Something dangerous vibrated in the air of this place, though most people never registered the thrum of it.
When outsiders set foot here, the thing they noticed was the heat. Something about it haunted them until it was all they could mention when Lauren said she was from Sacramento. What a hellhole. It’s so hot! Who could live there?
And why? It was hardly the hottest place in California. So maybe it was that low register of danger they felt.
Lauren had felt it the first time she’d come, but she’d been primed for it. Warned about what would happen if she ever returned to this place. She’d ignored the predictions, and she’d returned, terrifyingly untethered from the first decade of her life.
She’d learned herself here. She’d let this place mold her into the person she was today, and she could feel the city sink into her as she drove through the flat river plain of the town toward the hills beyond.
When she spotted the exit that would take her to the hospital where her grandmother lay, guilt tugged at her. She desperately wanted to veer to the right and race toward the big gray building, but the visit could wait one hour. The stroke had happened two days earlier, and Grandma’s doctors said she was improving and even recovering well from the concussion she’d sustained when she’d fallen.
If Lauren barged in wearing rumpled clothes dusted with the snacks she’d munched on during her drive from LA, her grandma might have another stroke. Elizabeth Abrams had always held a firm belief in putting your best foot forward. She’d worn ranch clothes while working outside, but she’d never, ever worn them around the house.
Right now Grandma was stable, and there was no danger in waiting a few more moments. She was on the mend, so Lauren was there to help with the mending. Her grandmother’s, but maybe her own too. This move wasn’t permanent, but she’d still packed up nearly her entire life when she’d left Bastian’s condo that morning. She’d have to find her own place when she returned.
But she didn’t need to think about that yet. For now she would watch over her grandma’s home and get it cleaned and ready before her release from rehab, and that was more than enough to worry about. The sprawl continued along the highway much farther out than it used to, but Lauren finally exited and pushed her little red hatchback up into the hills. Before she was quite ready, she’d turned onto a narrow paved road with ditches on either side, and then she was slowing for the gravel drive she’d been aiming for these past eight hours.
Home. It felt strange to approach and know that the screen door wouldn’t open to reveal her grandmother stepping onto the porch. Then again, Grandma was ninety now, so Lauren tried to count her blessings as she opened the car door and pushed to her feet.
Lauren was coming home because her grandmother had fallen and would need support, or so Lauren had thought as she packed up most of her belongings, thinking that she might stay for a lengthy period. Given her recent breakup, there really was nobody to return to, anyway.
What she wasn't expecting was that her grandmother, while still in the hospital and preparing for physical therapy, would begin to discuss her own plans. She wanted to move into a smaller care facility; she knew she could no longer live in her big rambling home.
And... she wanted Lauren to buy that home so that it would remain in the family! Lauren was not only shocked, she didn't exactly know how to even begin to deal with what her future might now entail. She did love the family home, but how would she be able to maintain and pay for routine expenses?
And then there was her father. Wouldn't he expect to be in line for ownership? Her father, who now had a new, complete family and, though they did see each other and talk, it was clear to Lauren that she would never be able to become a part of that family dynamic, especially after what had torn apart her mother and father...
Lauren had heard it all from her mother. She had no good words for Lauren's father and grandmother. In fact, it was because of her mother's testimony, that her father had been in prison for so many years though ultimately exonerated...
Now, as Lauren contemplates her present and future, we meet Donna, as she was when she first met Lauren's father...
At a point when Lauren was old enough to begin to want to consider her own future, she had decided to visit her grandmother and indeed had lived with her for many years...Lauren and her grandmother had always gotten along, so that, now, when she needed help, Lauren was happy to join her for what, she thought, would be a short time. Even then, Lauren had no idea, or concern really, about where she might live--she could always earn a living anywhere...
So things moved quickly after that, and Lauren had been able to make arrangements to purhase the property. Even though her mother couldn't stop herself from warning her not to. But Lauren had long ago scoffed that her mother either had lied or that there was just no way for her and her mother-in-law to get along, especially, after her son had been convicted based upon Donna's actions...
But as Lauren worked to settle in, thinking she could save money as well as learn how to begin to maintain her new home, she began, first, to remove the carpets and bring back the underlying wood to life...and she was even doing it, having fun, by videoblogging about her new learning experience of renewing her home...
Was it the underlying feeling of danger that surrounded the area, or, did it take a frightening experience that occurred when Lauren began to create a new bathroom, by first demolishing a wall...
Because, Lauren now knew, she was the one who was in danger--just like her mother had warned her... But Lauren, and I, were both to be shocked as the climax comes crushing down on top of the life she had led for so many years--until NOW--could she deal with it?
Absolutely controls the reader from beginning to end. At least it did for me. There are no hints--it is not really a mystery... But the tension keeps getting thicker and thicker until the explosion erupts with the Truth! Wow! A family drama totally unforgettable!
GABixlerReviews
No comments:
Post a Comment