Helpful Score: 2
The story of a father's love and his fall from grace. It's about how far you'd go to protect your son, your only child. I was engrossed in this tale, told thru flash backs moving from past to present. Beautifully written with flawed characters that I'll think about for a long time.
Helpful Score: 1
A father's love and concern for his son leads to unforeseen consequences.
I was really disappointed in this book-did not like it all. At the end, I was left feeling like-what was the point?
Peter and Elaine Dizinoff have been friends with Joe and Iris Stern since college. Living the perfect life in a wealthy New Jersey neighborhood, their children have grown up together and they have shared everything. However, sometimes the wrong decisions can be made for the right reasons...
Pete has spent his whole life working towards building an adulthood that would be, by all measures, judged successful. And in nearly every respect, he has accomplished just that: a skilled and intuitive internist with a loyal following of patients, Pete has built a thriving medical practice in Round Hill, New Jersey. He has a loving and devoted wife in Elaine; a network of close friends, a comfortable suburban status, and an impressive house with a good view from the porch.
Pete and Elaine have only one child, and Pete has pinned all his hopes on his son Alec. Pete only wants the best for Alec, and to that end, he and Elaine have done everything within their power to make his life successful. They've afforded him every opportunity, bailed him out of close calls with the law, and, despite Alec's lack of interest, have even managed to get him accepted into a good college.
But Pete never counted on the wild card: Laura, Joe and Iris Stern's daughter. Ten years older than Alec, irresistibly beautiful, with a history so shocking that it's never spoken of, Laura sets her sights on Alec, who falls under her spell. And with that, Pete sees his dreams for his son not only unraveling but completely destroyed. With the belief that he has only the best intentions at heart, he sets out to derail the romance. But Pete could never have foreseen how, in the process, he might shatter his whole life and devastate his entire family.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! It was a gripping plot that was absolutely believable to me. Quite a book! I give this book an A+! and have put Lauren Grodstein's other books on my Wish List.
Pete has spent his whole life working towards building an adulthood that would be, by all measures, judged successful. And in nearly every respect, he has accomplished just that: a skilled and intuitive internist with a loyal following of patients, Pete has built a thriving medical practice in Round Hill, New Jersey. He has a loving and devoted wife in Elaine; a network of close friends, a comfortable suburban status, and an impressive house with a good view from the porch.
Pete and Elaine have only one child, and Pete has pinned all his hopes on his son Alec. Pete only wants the best for Alec, and to that end, he and Elaine have done everything within their power to make his life successful. They've afforded him every opportunity, bailed him out of close calls with the law, and, despite Alec's lack of interest, have even managed to get him accepted into a good college.
But Pete never counted on the wild card: Laura, Joe and Iris Stern's daughter. Ten years older than Alec, irresistibly beautiful, with a history so shocking that it's never spoken of, Laura sets her sights on Alec, who falls under her spell. And with that, Pete sees his dreams for his son not only unraveling but completely destroyed. With the belief that he has only the best intentions at heart, he sets out to derail the romance. But Pete could never have foreseen how, in the process, he might shatter his whole life and devastate his entire family.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! It was a gripping plot that was absolutely believable to me. Quite a book! I give this book an A+! and have put Lauren Grodstein's other books on my Wish List.
One of the best books I've read lately.
Sorry to disagree with those of you who really liked this book a lot, but I didn't. Not that the author isn't a good writer, indeed I'm sure she is! But boy it dragged in places! I don't have the patience to spend long periods of time reading on and on the protagonist's mental meanderings through his childhood and his college years, while all the time I'm wondering what the heck happened to Laura, his best friend's daughter to cause her to become the awful person she was. Yes, it was an intelligently written novel, and I applaud that, but I need a bit of action every now and then to keep my blood moving. Then too,the degree to which these wealthy people go to please their very spoiled kids who have been given everything they could possibly dream of since birth, bothers me. It's almost as though these folks live in a bubble world all their own. I really wasn't crazy about this book!
Interesting and a fast read!
