Molly O'Keefe

No Fate But What You Make. Wait. What? You're a freaking moron, Sexton. There is no possible way that a historical fiction/ women's fiction mashup tale set in 2019 and the Vietnam War period and barely featuring any male characters whatsoever can possibly have anything to do with John Connor's war against Skynet. It. Can't. Possibly. Be. Linked.

And yet... yes, it can. Because ultimately we see here that there truly is no fate but what you make, as three friends meet in a podunk Kansas show more nursing school and go on to live lives that become inextricably linked to one another - but which forces each woman to make her own destiny, society and family be danged.

Along the way, we're going to cry several times at least as hard as when the T-800 sacrifices itself into the molten steel. We're even going to beg some characters to make different choices, same as John was doing there.

But in the end, we're going to get one amazing tale, one that just might make it difficult to think of other books for quite some time. (Which is difficult to do when you're trying to clean up your ARC work before holiday traveling. ;) )

Ultimately this truly is quite a strong tale and friendship and family. Very much recommended. show less

A special thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, Harlequin, Graydon House, and HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets is a narrative of four of the McAvoy women: Lindy, the wild sister, left home for a fresh start in the city and never looked back; Delia, the other sister, is run off her feet because she is juggling a moody teenager, a baby, the family business, and her mother's ailing health; Brin is the rebellious teenage daughter that's show more been feeling displaced ever since her baby sister was born; Meredith, the matriarch, has been suffering with some memory issues and struggles with lucidity at times.

The sisters used to be so close. They shared a room and would write in a notebook as to not disturb their mother who had to get up early for work. It was their book of secrets. Seventeen years ago, tragedy struck their family and the McAvoy sisters fell apart. With pressures mounting for Delia, she has no choice but to welcome Lindy back in the fold for much-needed help. As the two sisters try to put their family somewhat back in order, they finally have the chance to reclaim what's been missing: for Delia, a happy marriage, and for Lindy, a sense of belonging and a lost love—but most of all, the sisters are missing each other.

When a particularly turbulent night leads to a shocking revelation, the women must confront the past that they've been avoiding for more than a decade. Will an old secret bring the McAvoy women back together or is it too late?

Fader's narrative is told in alternating third person limited points-of-view between the four women. Lindy and Delia have a complex relationship that plays out over the course of the story. Delia is suffering from postpartum depression. That, coupled with her mother's recent stroke, is affecting her relationships with her husband, Dan, and daughter, Brin. Lindy is struggling with not only returning to her home, but with the prospect of a new job and rightfully finding her place in an industry that she excels in.

Strong women are what makes this story so great. Meredith raised the girls after her husband was lost at sea and the sisters turned out to be strong both in spirit and will. Delia doesn't realize her own strength and perceives asking for help as a sign of weakness even though she is shouldering a huge load as well as a past trauma. I also think that Lindy's string of bad relationships is a sign of her fortitude, rather than a flaw—she hasn't found someone to compliment her yet.

The characters were relatable and multifaceted. Fader gives away just enough detail to keep her reader vested in their story—her pace is spot on. She also has an excellent ear for dialogue which translates incredibly well on the page.

The mystery of what happened 17 years ago is the driver and really turns this into a page-turner. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this story is. To be perfectly honest, the cover and title didn't really grab me and I think they actually detract from what is a really great book. Please do yourself a favour and give this one a go, you most certainly won't be disappointed. Fader really packs a punch—there's a lot to unpack and discuss. What was also so great was the mystery part of the story. And that ending...I totally did not see that coming! show less

Originally reviewed at http://scorchingbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-nix-contemporary-review-cra...

I picked up this book expecting Chick-Lit. The blurb, the cutesie purple cover? It looked like a nice easy romance that would fill some time. Jesus, I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is a book about broken children and the damage that it does to the human psyche, how people often make choices based on the things they think they want rather than what they actually need. I read this show more book in one sitting, mostly chewing my nails and occasionally crying. It started off as something with a mild undercurrent humour and then it became something else because of an event that turns Billy’s life upside down, an event I can’t mention because it happens at 60% of the freaking book!

Billy is a broken man from a broken home that gets money thrown at him when he gets drafted in Hockey. From that day forward his life with Madelyn changes. She is the girl that he has loved since they were children, the young woman he married as soon as he could and he throws it away because money and fame get involved. I completely fell for Billy. He was young, stupid and had never had money. For him, this was the world that he wanted to be in, a world he would do anything to be part of. He didn’t mean to push her away, was even devastated when that was the outcome, but he just wanted the “dream”.

From that day forth his career was turbulent but then he has one fight too many and some PR is needed. Enter Madelyn and the show she has worked her ass off to protect. She doesn’t want Billy anywhere near her, had worked to become something more than just his wife and she is absolutely terrified that all that will be taken away if anyone finds out about their past. She is so cold with him it is heart-breaking. He is so upfront, allowing her to humiliate him with her “makeover” of him on National TV, all because he wants her back in his life. The thing is she doesn’t want him back in.

I didn’t really like the way that he practically eviscerates himself on national TV to make penance for his sins. It wasn’t that it made him weak, the opposite in fact, but it did make me think less of her. She was in a difficult position job wise, but that was no real excuse for what she did. She sat back and let him do all this when she had no real intention of letting him back in. She had hidden the girl that loved him so deep, she was pretty hard to let her feelings be known. Even doused in humour, it was still a very cruel thing to do. I liked that it was him that had the makeover though J

He is in a place in his life where he feels that he can commit; she is in a place where she feels she is happy without him. Him forcing himself back into her world leaves them with some occasionally hot sex and whole heap of pain. I couldn’t help feel that they were repeating the whole vicious cycle again, that they were doomed to fail. Then the “surprise” guests appear on the makeover show and Billy realises that maybe they can’t make it work after all. I really don’t want to mention who the guests are as I feel it’s a massive spoiler. These “guests” though were the best part of the book, the part that broke my heart and made me realise that Billy and Maddy may not get their HEA as the relationship they had wasn’t healthy for anyone to be around. To be together, they would have to accept that they were a product of their past, that denying wouldn’t change the damage that it had done. Only when they accepted their fears and desires would they evolve to a place where they could be together. The problem was that neither of them wanted to face and accept the place that they had come from, the place that had created a woman determined to be something in her own right and a man who never wanted to feel that impoverished or unsafe again. My heart bled all over the pages for these characters, especially during the flashbacks that littered the book, filling in the gaps of their history together.

I will say no more on this book and its tale. It was a book that made ripped me apart a little on every page. Yes, Billy and Maddy are a hot couple but their chemistry isn’t the thing that kept me going. I didn’t know how they would make it work or if it would even be enough to create a good relationship, but I had to know they were OK. They say a good writer puts their characters through hell to put them back together again and by God these two were put through the ringer. show less

Good book, with a marriage of convenience between two very different people. It opens with Ryan working her job as a bartender, and seeing the same good-looking "Ken doll" man come in for the third night in a row. The first two nights he had been glued to his phone, ignoring everyone around him, but on this night he sits there looking sad, alone and lost. Ryan is drawn to him and, as she frequently does, gets him to talk a little about what is troubling him. Then she breaks all the rules and show more spends a hot night with a man whose full name she doesn't know.

Harrison is part of a family with a history of public service, and he is starting his first run for office himself. He is determined not to follow in his father's corrupt footsteps and keeps tight control on his own actions. The one exception was that night with the beautiful bartender who was his port in an emotional storm. He can't forget her, but he can't see her again either. Then he finds out she's pregnant, and to protect himself from scandal he knows he'll have to marry her.

My feelings about Harrison went back and forth between liking him and detesting him. His vulnerability at the beginning had me hoping that everything would turn out all right with whatever problem he had been facing. Even when he left the next morning, he did so with a bit of class. But his reaction when he found out Ryan was pregnant had me going the other way, especially with his threats against her. There were times when he seemed to be two different people. I found him to be rather judgmental, especially regarding his parents, when he wasn't exactly perfect himself. He could also be very kind, as shown when he was trying to take care of Ryan when she was sick. He was very focused on his goal of political office, even though I frequently got the feeling that it isn't what would make him truly happy. As the story went on, the good Harrison was more frequently seen. I liked the way that he came to appreciate Ryan and her support of him. He also started to care for her. When things started to go bad with his campaign, he wanted to protect her from being affected by his troubles, so he tried to drive her away. But in doing so, he finally realizes that it is Ryan who has given him the true reason to be a better man, and has to find a way to win her back. How he goes about it shows just how much he has changed.

I really liked Ryan. She had a working class upbringing and was something of a wild child. She had a brief stint as a model, a mistake of a marriage, and a serious falling out with her family. She's been on her own for six years, trying to get her life back in order. She's really good at reading people and wanting to help them through their problems, which is how she ended up with Harrison in the first place. Even when she finds out who he is, she has no plans to contact him, knowing that it could wreck his plans. Interference from her protective brother takes the decision out of her hands. Her encounter with the political Harrison is painful and leaves her with no choice but to go along with his proposal, but she has the strength to add a few conditions of her own. I loved that she didn't just give in to his demands.

What happens next is a roller coaster of feelings. Ryan may be the complete opposite of Harrison and everything he is, but she isn't stupid. I loved her transformation from bartender to political wife, and the way it completely floored everyone around her. The scene at the press conference that introduced her as Harrison's wife was fantastic. She doesn't try to hide her past or gloss over it, the way that Harrison tried to do, but steps up and owns it and moves on. There's also a wonderful scene at an event at a food bank, where Ryan's past experiences show an empathy that people like Harrison can never have. Harrison starts to gain a new respect for Ryan. She is also a place of normalcy in the craziness that is his life and he grows to need her far more than he ever expected.

The secondary characters were great. Harrison's parents are his example of what not to do with his life and his career. They are really unlikable until the very end, when I developed a little bit of sympathy for them. Ryan's family is an interesting contrast. They obviously love each other, but Ryan's past actions have put a strain on their relationships. I was intrigued by Ryan's brother Wes, and would like to see him in his own story. My favorite of the secondary characters was Harrison's campaign manager Wallace. He's definitely a good friend to Harrison and wants what is best for him. I loved his interactions with Ryan, especially the one when she first arrives in Atlanta. It was great to see him go from disdain and dislike to a real respect and liking for her. I loved his part in bringing them back together.

*copy received in exchange for honest review. show less