Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Quick Pick: The Real Liddy James, by Anne-Marie Casey

The Real Liddy James book review, by Anne-Marie Casey
  • Opening lines: Liddy knew Mrs. Vandervost had been crying because she emerged from the corridor bathroom with her sunglasses on. 
  • Reason I picked up the book: The synopsis sounded interesting, and it was available on NetGalley. 
  • And what's this book about?
  • An exuberant new novel about a modern-day superwoman who leans in so far she falls over.

    Liddy James is forty-four, fit, and fabulous. One of New York's top divorce attorneys, a bestselling author, and a mother of two, she glides through the courtrooms and salons of the Manhattan elite with ease. Despite a devastating divorce from her first love, literature professor Peter James, Liddy, Peter, and Peter's sympathetic new partner, Rose, have formed a modern family to raise Liddy and Peter's truculent teen and Liddy's adorable, if fatherless, six-year-old. With her lonely and impoverished childhood far behind her, to the outside world Liddy's life is perfect.

    Until it isn't.

    When Rose announces an unexpected pregnancy, Liddy's beloved nanny takes flight, a high-profile divorce case becomes too personal, and the bill for a roof repair looms, Liddy realizes she may have finally bitten off more than she can chew. Long overdue for time off, she takes her sons and heads to Ireland to retrace her family's history. But marooned in the Celtic countryside, things are still far from simple, and Liddy takes on a stormy neighbor, an unorthodox wedding, and a surprise guest before she's willing to admit that even she might have forgotten just how to be the real Liddy James.
  • Favorite paragraph: Rose remembered a scornful debate she had participated in during her freshman year about women like Liddy, professional women whose lifestyles were balanced precariously on the subjugation of other women, women like Lucia, who were their servants. (For two and a half decades, Rose had self-consciously scrubbed her own toilet bowls; the moment she was forbidden to, Peter had greeted with cash and open arms the two undocumented Eastern European maids who came for four hours every week). But now she knew that Peter's unpaid sabbaticals, the renovations to the house, the new car, had all been lubricated by his ex-wife's salary, and the lifestyle Rose enjoyed was wholly dependent on the continued labors of Liddy. 
  • Recommended for: Anyone who likes stories about untraditional families. 
  • Something to know: Nothing. 
  • What I would have changed: Nothing. 
  • Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
  • Where can I find this book? Click here to purchase.

    *Disclosure: I received a galley of this book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

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