Robin Page (2)

In Southern California, two survivors, one of extensive psychological and physical abuse during her childhood, the other a Rwandan refugee who saw his daughter kidnapped, his wife raped and driven from him, and his entire extended family slaughtered. These people are neighbors in an upscale condo building and have never met before, but their pasts have come back to haunt them, and when they meet accidentally they start a friendship that helps them both. Jocelyn is now married with a 6-year show more old daughter and a wealthy, controlling husband. News of her mother's death, which should have released her, has instead brought her close to a breakdown, and a major part of her story here is her inner life as she tries to find a way to survive yet again. Simon, a world-renowned landscape architect, has also received a shock: a letter from a woman who thinks she may be his daughter, now an adult living in Boston and pregnant with her first child.

These two struggles should have been enough to provide a dramatic and psychologically intense plot, but unfortunately the author decided to throw in a third major plot development: an affair between Jocelyn and her tennis coach. The fact that the coach is a woman isn't the problem here - it's that most of the latter scenes involving Jocelyn detail their sexual trysts in great detail. Some readers may find this entertaining, but such extensive and explicit scenes are not what I enjoy reading, and I thought it was unnecessary in this context. Partly because of this I found Simon's story more compelling. show less