Reviewer Comments: When is truth, fiction and fiction, truth? Four women. Four authors. One explosive book.
Kendall Aims is in the middle of a life crisis. She didn’t win the Zelda for her novel, her publisher is dropping her from their schedule, after she submits her next contracted book, and her husband is leaving her. What can a woman do but run away and try to forget that anything is wrong. Her soon to be ex husband wants her to tell the children while he and his new girlfriend continue their affair.
Kendall has three author friends each at a different point in their writing career. Mallory St James is the most successful and is being pushed to write more but at the same time her marriage is suffering. Tanya Mason works in a diner and lives with her alcoholic mother and she has a fear of commitment because of her mother and her ex-husband. Faye Truett is the wife of a TV evangelist and an inspirational romance writer. Faye, Mallory and Tanya come to Kendall’s aid and help her write her book which turns out to be a bestseller. All agree that Kendall will be the one who is recognised as the author even though they all had input. It is on the Kristen Calder Show that their pact and their many secrets explode into the open. The women are then left to deal with the fall out and are left to wonder if their friendship can survive this crisis.
This really is a story of friendship, support and encouragement and the lengths some women will go to help a friend in need. The women have to juggle their career, their family life as well as their secrets. Ms Wax has written a page turner that keeps the reader involved in the lives of these women and a constant hoping they will prevail over all their troubles. As a reader I was involved in all aspects of the story and felt the despair as the secret explodes and how they overcome the exposure of their secrets to repair damage to their friendship and their lives.
What is the most intriguing part of this story is that it is set in the publishing industry. The reader may be able to see story development, editing, selling the story and publicity. Some features of the industry, even though it is fiction, there might be some element of truth. One interesting question posed in the book towards the end is how much should a reader / fan know about the lives of the author?
