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Family Law: A Novel

by Gin Phillips

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321753,572 (3.2)None
"When an ambitious female lawyer becomes the victim of harassment, she must decide what's more important: her family's safety or the rights she's fighting for? Set in Alabama in the early '80s, Family Law follows a young lawyer, Lucia, who is making a name for herself at a time when a woman in a courtroom is still a rarity. She's been the recipient of threats and vandalism for her work extracting women from painful and sometimes dangerous marriages, but her own happy marriage has always felt sheltered from the work she does. When her mother's pending divorce brings teenaged Rachel into Lucia's orbit, Rachel finds herself smitten--not just with Lucia, but with the change Lucia represents. Rachel is out-spoken and curious, and she chafes at the rules her mother lays down as the bounds of acceptable feminine behavior. In Lucia, Rachel sees the potential for a new path into womanhood. But their unconventional friendship takes them both to a crossroads. When a moment of violence--a threat made good--puts Rachel in danger, Lucia has to decide how much her work means to her and what she's willing to sacrifice to keep moving forward. Written in alternating voices from Lucia and Rachel's perspectives, Family Law is a fresh take on what the advancement of women's rights looks like on the ground to the ordinary women and girls who imagine a world redefined. Addressing mother daughter relationships and what roles we can play in the lives of women who aren't our family, the novel examines how we shape each other and how we make a difference. The funny, strong, and yet tender-hearted female leads of Family Law illuminate a new kind of Southern women's fiction--atmospheric, rich, and with quietly surprising twists and nuances all its own"--… (more)
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1980s, Alabama. Lucia is a bright, successful lawyer, a fighter at a time when women lawyers were a minority. She is often treated with condensation, sometimes pats on her rear by male lawyers and judges, but she is determined to let nothing stop her from fighting for her women clients. Rachel is a young thirteen, being raised in southern manners and womanhood, but she's also a rebel. Wants more and she finds Lucia fascinating, Lucia's wonderful marriage, satisfying. She and Lucia become friends, despite their age difference.

There is a sense of dread, present but in the background of this story. Lucia is being harrassed and someone is bent on doing her harm. She has no clue who it is, but things come to a head and this will effect her relationship with Rachel and with her husband, who is worried for her safety.

The time period and the preferred role for woman, is wonderfully portrayed. I loved Lucia's character, her Moxy and enjoyed watching Rachel navigating her role in life. Which path should she flow? The one her mother prefers or can she see something more for herself? A simple novel on the surface but it has depths in realism that those woman who grow up in the eighties will recognize.

ARC from Edelweiss. ( )
  Beamis12 | Jun 21, 2021 |
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"When an ambitious female lawyer becomes the victim of harassment, she must decide what's more important: her family's safety or the rights she's fighting for? Set in Alabama in the early '80s, Family Law follows a young lawyer, Lucia, who is making a name for herself at a time when a woman in a courtroom is still a rarity. She's been the recipient of threats and vandalism for her work extracting women from painful and sometimes dangerous marriages, but her own happy marriage has always felt sheltered from the work she does. When her mother's pending divorce brings teenaged Rachel into Lucia's orbit, Rachel finds herself smitten--not just with Lucia, but with the change Lucia represents. Rachel is out-spoken and curious, and she chafes at the rules her mother lays down as the bounds of acceptable feminine behavior. In Lucia, Rachel sees the potential for a new path into womanhood. But their unconventional friendship takes them both to a crossroads. When a moment of violence--a threat made good--puts Rachel in danger, Lucia has to decide how much her work means to her and what she's willing to sacrifice to keep moving forward. Written in alternating voices from Lucia and Rachel's perspectives, Family Law is a fresh take on what the advancement of women's rights looks like on the ground to the ordinary women and girls who imagine a world redefined. Addressing mother daughter relationships and what roles we can play in the lives of women who aren't our family, the novel examines how we shape each other and how we make a difference. The funny, strong, and yet tender-hearted female leads of Family Law illuminate a new kind of Southern women's fiction--atmospheric, rich, and with quietly surprising twists and nuances all its own"--

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